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An autohts snapped off

Loreda saw a couple get out of the car They ell dressed, all in black, both srants or farmers

Loreda ot out of the truck and followed the couple to the barn

The barn door opened

Loreda slipped in behind the couple and ih boards of the barn

She couldn’t have said what she was expecting to see—grown-ups drinking hooch and dancing the Lindy Hop maybe—but whatever she’d expected, it wasn’t this Men dressed in suitspants Pants They see with their hands as if arguing The place felt alive, hive-like with activity Cigarette s Loreda’s eyes

There were about ten tables set up in the barn’s dusty, shadowed interior, with lanterns set on each one, creating pockets of light shot through with dust and sraph machines were positioned on the tables Woe aroma in the air, mixed in with the smell of smoke Stacks of papers lined the tabletops Every once in a while Loreda heard the briiiiing of a carriage return

When Jack strode forward, people stopped what they were doing and turned toward him He pulled a newspaper off a table in front of him and climbed up several loft steps, then faced the crowd He lifted the newspaper up The headline read: “Los Angeles Declares War on Migrants”

“Police Chief Jarowers, the railroads, the state relief agencies, and the rest of the state fat cats, just closed the California border to rants” Jack threw the paper to the straw-covered floor “Think of it Desperate people, good people, Aunpoint and turned away To go where? Many of the of dust pneumonia If they won’t turn back, the coppers are jaili

ng the them to hard labor”

Loreda was hardly surprised She knehat it was like to co for better and be treated as worse

“Bastards,” someone yelled

“All across the state of California, the big growers are taking advantage of the people ork for the into the state are so desperate to feed their fae There are more than seventy thousand ho in the squatters’ camps at a rate of two a day, froht Not in Ah It’s up to us to help theet thehts”

There was a roar of approval from the crowd

Loreda nodded His words struck a nerve with her, made her think for the first time, We don’t have to take this