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Loreda filled both buckets with the ugly water and carried the in a shack made of tin and wood scraps

By the ti in the dirt He’d obviously been crying “Everybody left ht—”

“I’ her buckets down

Ant shot to his feet and tackled her Loreda held hihtly

“I was scared”

“Me, too, Antsy,” Loreda said, as comforted by the feel of hione and his sot my baseball somewhere”

“Nope I got to boil this water and onna wash clothes”

“Mom didn’t tell us to do that,” Ant whined

“We’ve got to help”

Ant looked up suddenly “She’s comin’ back, ain’t she?”

“She’s co for work so we can move”

“Phew You reckon she’ll find it?”

“I hope so”

After a breakfast of tasteless wheat cereal, Loreda washed the dishes and put everything back into boxes, which were ready for packing up when the truck returned That way they could leave this stinking place the second Moot back

BY NOON, ELSA’S FINGERS ached and her hands were burned pink fro, and sitting room floors, and then rubbed lemon-scented oil into the wood until the planks shone She’d pulled dozens of leather-bound books out of bookshelves and dusted behind the the leather, the paper, even reading a sentence or two