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LONESOME TREE WAS A ghost town

Tony pushed the wheelbarron Main Street, past the boarded- up storefronts The once-thriving feed store had been taken over by the Red Cross and converted into a hospital

The plains cottonas gone Someone must have cut it up for firewood after it died of thirst

At the hed

Inside, the narrow building was shadowy and dark The s had been boarded up to keep out the dust and wind Red Cross nurses wore uniforray A doctor hurried froh at each toalong behind him

Tony carried Ant into the room “I have a child here who needs help”

A nurse approached theard and drawn as everyone else “How bad is he?”

“Bad”

The nurse sighed heavily “A bed ca”

They all knew that meant someone had died from the dust

The nurse gave Elsa a sad look “It’s been bad Come”

Elsa followed Tony into the roo patients

They settled Ant on a cot in back, beneath a ten-footcovered by wooden boards Even so, the sill was stuffed with rags To the left, a cot held an old ht for every breath A mask covered his eyes

Elsa knelt beside her son

Heat radiated off of him She touched his hot forehead “I’m here, Ant We all are”