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“Have you seen the way folks live out by the ditch bank?”

“Yes,” Elsa said “I’ve seen it”

Holding her bag of groceries, she walked out of the store

Outside, peoplefor wood, young children looking for any bit of junk to call a toy A dozen stoop-shouldered woy dresses stood in line for the tomen’s toilets There werehere now; they’d pitched fifteen new tents on concrete pads

She looked at the women, really looked Gray Slanted shoulders Kerchiefs on untended hair Drab dresses s Worn shoes Thin

Still, they sled their runaway children, those young enough not to be in school Elsa had stood in that line enough to know that the woossip, children, health

Life went on, even in the hardest of times

TWENTY-NINE

In May, the valley dried out beneath sunny days and everything grew and blossomed In June, the cotton plants flowered and needed to be trirowers’ caet these precious jobs; Elsa spent hours working beneath the hot sun Most of the valley’s ditch-bank residents, including Jeb and the boys, had hitchhiked north for work Jean stayed back with the girls and the stuck-in-the-ground truck that was all they had left

Today, just before dawn, a big truck pulled into the Welty ca in line barely waited for it to stop before they cliot into the back and craloves they’d had to purchase at the company store for an exorbitant price)

Loreda looked up at Mom, as pressed close to the wooden slats directly behind the cab She had been the second person in line when the truck pulled up this

“Make sure Ant does his homework,” Mom said

“Are you sure I can’t—”

“I’m sure, Loreda You can pick cotton when it’s ready; that’s it Now go to school and learn so so you don’t end up like me I’m forty and most days I feel a hundred Besides, there’s only a week of school left anyway”

A ate at the back of the truck Withinto the cotton fields It wasn’t hot yet, but it soon would be