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“Oh”

Elsa was acutely aware of how ragged she looked All that effort to present herself for workto this woman

“Follow me”

Inside, the house was grand: oaken doors, crystal fixtures, reen fields outside and turned them into a kaleidoscope of color Thick oriental carpets, carved any side tables

A little girl ca pertly She wore a dress of pink polka dots and black patent leather shoes “Mommy, what does the dirty lady want?”

“Don’t get too close, dear They carry disease”

The girl’s eyes widened She backed away

Elsa couldn’t believe what she’d heard “Ma’am—”

“Don’t speak to me unless I ask a direct question,” the woman said “You may scrub the floors Butand I’ll check your pockets before you leave And don’t touch anything but the water, bucket, and brush”

TWENTY

Loreda woke to the smell It reminded her with every indrawn breath that they had spent the night in the last place on earth she wanted to be

Loreda stayed in bed as long as she could, knowing that the clarity of day would reveal ies she didn’t want to see, but finally, the arorumbled, and put a holey sweater on over her dress

She stepped into her shoes and opened the tent flap, expecting to find heron an overturned bucket by the ca coffee But neither Molass of water and her mother’s note

Loreda looked out toward the road, across the flat, brown field rutted by foot and tire tracks and a cluster of tents and vehicles The field—probably fifty acres altogether—held a hundred tents and dozens of trucks that had becoether of scrapragged children, whilefor food or attention Folks had lived here a long ti laundry lines and create yards full of junk No one would want to live this way, and yet here they were The Great Depression

For the first ti off with people’sin line for free soup