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As night fell, the ca filled and ee dots—open fires—sprouted here and there S food aromas with it A steady stream of people walked up from the road toward the tents

Elsa heard footsteps and looked up A family approached their caed boys and two young girls The man, tall and whippet lean, wore stained overalls and a ripped shirt Beside hith brown hair that was going gray in streaks She wore a baggy cotton dress with an apron over it There see over her bones but a thin layer of skin; no muscle, no fat The

two skinny little girls wore burlap sacks that had cutouts for their arms and necks; their feet were dirty and bare

“Howdy, neighbor,” the ht we’d cole red potato “We brung yah this Ain’t much, I know But we ain’t too heeled, as y’all can tell”

Elsa was touched by the generosity of the gesture “Thank you” She reached for one of their buckets, turned it over, and placed her sweater on it “Sit, please,” she said to the wo her housedress to cover her bare, dirty knees

“I’m Elsa These are my children, Loreda and Anthony” She reached sideways, withdreo precious slices of bread from their loaf “Please, take these”

The man took the bread in his callused hands “I’sters, Mary and Buster, Elroy and Lucy”

The kids rass and sat down Loreda started a new shuffling of the cards

“How long have you been here?” Elsa asked the adults when the kids were out of earshot She sat down on an overturned bucket near Jean

“Almost nine months,” Jean answered “We picked cotton last fall, but winter here is hard You got to h four months of no pickin’ And don’t let anyone tell you that California is warm in the winter”

Elsa glanced over at the Deweys’ tent, which was about fifteen feet away It was at least ten by ten; just like the Martinelli’s But … how could six people live in such tight quarters for nine months?

Jean saw Elsa’s look “It can be aseems like a full-time job” She ser had whittled her down “It ain’t like Alabama, I can tell you We were better off there”

“I was a farh for us It’s the bank’s farm now”

“Are most of the people here farmers?” Elsa asked

“Some Old Milt—he lives in the blue jalopy with the broke axle over yonder—he was a darn lawyer Hank was a postman Sanderson made fancy hats You can’t tell nothin’ by lookin’ at a fella these days”