Page 174 (1/2)
“Soet mad”
“You’re right,” Elsa said Enough “If I wanted to find Mr Valen and his Communist friends, would you knohere to look?”
“I think so”
“Where?”
“There’s a barn where they make flyers and stuff Out at the end of Willow Road”
“Okay” Elsa drew in a deep breath and released it slowly “Okay, then”
LATER, WHEN NIGHT FELL across the valley and stars came out to blanket the sky, Elsa quietly herded her children out of the cabin and toward the truck None of them spoke as they clier of what they’d decided to do tonight
“Turn here,” Loreda said
Elsa turned onto a dirt road that cut through brown, uncultivated fields At the end of the road, a gray-brown barn stood next to an old ranch house with broken s and boarded-up doors There were six or seven automobiles parked out front
Elsa parked next to a dus
ty Packard She and Loreda and Ant got out of the truck and walked toward the barn Loreda pushed open the half-broken door
The interior was lit by lanterns There were several tables set up on the straw-covered dirt floor; chairs were placed rando the walls At least a dozen people were at work: soarette smoke thickened the air but couldn’t obliterate the sweet smell of hay
Elsa and the children walked a the Communists; no one seeraph machine “WORKERS UNITE!” was the bold headline She smelled an odd odor of ink and metal
They passed a s spectacles who paced as she dictated to another woet richer while the poor get poorer How can we call ourselves the land of the free when people are living on the streets and dying of hunger? Radical change requires radical methods…”
Loreda elbowed Elsa, who looked up