How could he smile with blood running down from a cut at his temple?
A police siren wailed.
“Come on,” Jack said, taking her by the arm. “I’ve had enough jail time this week.” He gathered up his flyers, and then pulled her across the street and into a diner.
Loreda climbed up onto the stool next to him. Taking a napkin, she dabbed at the blood at his temple.
“Does it give me a rakish look?”
“That’s not funny,” she said.
“No. It’s not.”
“What was all of that about?”
He ordered Loreda a chocolate milkshake.
“Cotton prices are down. That’s bad for the industry and bad news for the workers. The growers are getting nervous.”
Loreda slurped up the sweet, creamy milkshake so fast it gave her a headache. “That’s why they had that meeting and called us names?”
“They call you names because they don’t want to think of you as like them. They’re worried about you forming unions, demanding more money. The so-called Bum Blockade—the closing of state borders—is over, so migrants are pouring into the state again.”
“They don’t want to pay us enough to live on.”
“Exactly.”
“How do we make them pay?”
“You’ll have to fight for it.” He paused, looked at her, trying to appear nonchalant. “Now, tell me, kid, how’s your mom?”
* * *
AFTER TEN HOURS OF hard labor beneath a hot sun, Elsa climbed down from the truck. She had her work chit in one gloved hand. It wasn’t worth much, but it was something. The company store charged the camp residents ten percent to convert the chit to credit, but they couldn’t cash it anywhere else; if they wanted cash instead of credit, they had to pay interest. So, in point of fact, as little as they were paid, it was really even ten percent less. Exhausted, her hands and shoulders aching in pain, she walked over to the store and went inside. The bell that jangled at her entrance grated on her nerves. All she could think about in this place was her growing debt and the grinding truth that there was no way out of it.
A new man was at the counter, someone she didn’t know.
“Cabin Ten,” she said.
The new man opened the book, looked at the chit, and wrote down the amount she’d earned. Turning, she chose two cans of milk from the aisle beside her. She hated to pay what they charged for it, but Ant and Loreda needed milk to keep their bones strong. “Put this on my bill,” she said without looking back.
She joined the women in line for the bathroom. Usually she struck up a conversation with the women around her, but after ten hours in the cotton field, she didn’t have the energy.
When it was finally her turn, she went into the dark, smelly bathroom and used the toilet.
She washed her hands at a pump outside and then headed back to her cabin. A foreman followed her part of the way, stopped to listen to a pair of men talking along the fence line. It was happening more and more lately, the growers sending spies to listen to what the workers said when they weren’t in the fields.
At her cabin door, she paused, collected herself, and managed a smile just as she opened the door. “Hello, explor—”
She stopped.
Jack sat on Elsa’s bed, hunched forward, as if telling a story to Ant, who sat on the concrete floor in front of him cross-legged, looking rapt.
“Ma!” Ant said, springing up. “Jack is tellin’ us about Hollywood. He’s met a bunch of movie stars. Ain’t that right, Jack?”
Elsa saw the stack of flyers on the chair beside her. Workers Unite for Change!
Jack stood. “I met Loreda in town today. She invited me here.”
Elsa looked at Loreda, who had the grace to blush. “Loreda was in town. On a school day. How interesting. And she invited you—a Communist—back to our tent, with your flyers. How very thoughtful of her.”
“I skipped school and went to the library,” Loreda said as Elsa put the milk away. “Mrs. Sharpe was teaching the girls in class how to make cosmetics, Mom. I mean … we can’t buy books and we’re hungry, and making eyeliner is important?”
“Loreda tells me you’ve been working hard lately,” Jack said, coming toward her. “It was sure hot today.”
“It’s still hot. And I’m lucky to have the work,” she said. When he was close enough to hear her whisper, she said, “You endanger us with your presence.”