back. “Ant tells me you have an Explorers Club. May I join?”
“Please, Mom,” the kids said in unison.
“They have the hearing of jackals when they want to,” Elsa said.
“Pleeeeeease.”
“Okay, okay. But I should feed us—”
“No,” Jack said. “You are in my care now. I’ll meet you out at the road. My truck’s there. It’s best not to be seen with me.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s best not to be with you,” Elsa said.
Loreda jumped up and led Jack to the door, closing it behind him. Slowly, she turned, making a face. “About school—”
Honestly, Elsa was too hot and tired to care about skipped school right now. She washed and dried her face and brushed her hair. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” She made Ant turn around, then stripped out of her work clothes and into the pretty cotton dress from the Salvation Army.
They left the cabin and walked out to the main road, where Jack’s truck was parked.
All the way there, she worried that they were being watched, but she didn’t see any foremen skulking about.
They crammed into Jack’s old truck. Elsa held Ant on her lap.
“And we’re off!” Ant said as Jack steered their way out to the road.
Soon they turned onto the road where the abandoned hotel was. “Wait here.” He parked the truck and bounded out and went into a small Mexican restaurant that appeared to be standing-room-only busy inside. Moments later, he came out with a basket, which he put in the back of the truck.
Well out of town, they turned onto a road Elsa had never been on before. It twisted and turned as it rose into the foothills.
At last Jack pulled over and parked at the edge of a large, grassy area, alongside a dozen or so other parked cars. People walked among the newly planted trees; children and pets ran across the grass. Elsa could see three lakes; one was dotted with people in paddleboats. People swam along the shore, laughing and splashing. Off to the left, in a copse of trees, a band played a Jimmie Rodgers song. A string of concession booths had been set up along the shore. The air smelled of brown sugar and popcorn.
It was like going back in time. Elsa thought of Pioneer Days and how she and Rose had cooked all day to be ready, how Tony had played his fiddle, and everyone had danced.
“It’s like home,” Loreda said beside her.
Elsa reached out for her daughter’s hand, held it for a moment, and then let her go.
The kids ran off toward the lake.
“It’s beautiful,” Elsa said.
Jack got the basket from the back of the truck. “The WPA built it with FDR’s funds. It put men to work and paid them a good wage. This is opening day.”
“I thought you commies hated everything in America.”
“Not at all,” he said solemnly. “We agree with the New Deal. We believe in justice and fair wages and equal opportunity for all, not just the rich. Communism is really just the new Americanism; I think it was John Ford, the director, who said that first. At one of the early meetings of the new Hollywood Anti-Nazi League.”
“You take it very seriously,” she said.
“It is serious, Elsa.” He took her arm, began strolling through the park. “But not today.”
Elsa felt people looking at her, judging her worn clothes and bare legs and shoes that didn’t quite fit.
A tall woman in a blue crepe dress walked past, her gloved hands holding fast to her handbag. She sniffed ever so slightly as she turned her head away.
Elsa stopped, feeling ashamed.
“That old bag has no right to judge you. Stare her down,” Jack said, and urged her to keep walking.
It was exactly the kind of thing her grandfather would have said to her. Elsa couldn’t help smiling.
They went to the edge of the lake and sat down in the grass. Ant and Loreda were splashing in water up to their knees. Elsa and Jack took off their shoes; Jack set his hat aside.
“You remind me of my mother,” he said.
“Your mother? Have I aged that much?”
“It is a compliment, Elsa. Believe me. She was a fierce woman.”
Elsa smiled. “I’m hardly fierce, but I’ll accept any compliment these days.”
“I often wondered how my mother did it, survived in this country, a single woman who barely spoke the language, with a kid and no husband. I hated how other women treated her, how her boss treated her. I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”
“You probably think she