On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food.
And the anger began to ferment.
Chapter 22
It was late when Tom Joad drove along a country road looking for the Weedpatch camp.
There were few lights in the countryside.
Only a sky glare behind showed the direction of Bakersfield.
The truck jiggled slowly along and hunting cats left the road ahead of it.
At a crossroad there was a little cluster of white wooden buildings.
Ma was sleeping in the seat and Pa had been silent and withdrawn for a long time.
Tom said,
“I don’ know where she is.
Maybe we’ll wait till daylight an’ ast somebody.” He stopped at a boulevard signal and another car stopped at the crossing.
Tom leaned out. “Hey, mister. Know where the big camp is at?”
“Straight ahead.”
Tom pulled across into the opposite road. A few hundred yards, and then he stopped.
A high wire fence faced the road, and a wide-gated driveway turned in.
A little way inside the gate there was a small house with a light in the window.
Tom turned in.
The whole truck leaped into the air and crashed down again.
“Jesus!” Tom said. “I didn’ even see that hump.”
A watchman stood up from the porch and walked to the car. He leaned on the side.
“You hit her too fast,” he said. “Next time you’ll take it easy.”
“What is it, for God’s sake?”
The watchman laughed.
“Well, a lot of kids play in here. You tell folks to go slow and they’re liable to forget.
But let ’em hit that hump once and they don’t forget.”
“Oh! Yeah.
Hope I didn’ break nothin’.
Say—you got any room here for us?”
“Got one camp.
How many of you?”
Tom counted on his fingers.
“Me an’ Pa an’ Ma, Al an’ Rosasharn an’ Uncle John an’ Ruthie an’ Winfiel’. Them last is kids.”
“Well, I guess we can fix you.
Got any camping stuff?”
“Got a big tarp an’ beds.”
The watchman stepped up on the running board.
“Drive down the end of that line an’ turn right.
You’ll be in Number Four Sanitary Unit.”
“What’s that?”
“Toilets and showers and wash tubs.”
Ma demanded,
“You got wash tubs—running water?”
“Sure.”
“Oh! Praise God,” said Ma.
Tom drove down the long dark row of tents.
In the sanitary building a low light burned.
“Pull in here,” the watchman said. “It’s a nice place.
Folks that had it just moved out.”
Tom stopped the car.