I didn’ mean no harm, Al.
I didn’ know you liked that girl so much.”
“I don’t like no girls much.”
“Awright, then, you don’t.
You ain’t gonna get no argument out of me.”
The truck came to the edge of the city.
“Look a them hotdog stan’s—hunderds of ’em,” said Tom.
Ma said,
“Tom!
I got a dollar put away.
You wan’ coffee bad enough to spen’ it?”
“No, Ma.
I’m jus’ foolin’.”
“You can have it if you wan’ it bad enough.”
“I wouldn’ take it.”
Al said,
“Then shut up about coffee.”
Tom was silent for a time.
“Seems like I got my foot in it all the time,” he said. “There’s the road we run up that night.”
“I hope we don’t never have nothin’ like that again,” said Ma. “That was a bad night.”
“I didn’ like it none either.”
The sun rose on their right, and the great shadow of the truck ran beside them, flicking over the fence posts beside the road.
They ran on past the rebuilt Hooverville.
“Look,” said Tom. “They got new people there.
Looks like the same place.”
Al came slowly out of his sullenness.
“Fella tol’ me some a them people been burned out fifteen-twenty times.
Says they jus’ go hide down the willows an’ then they come out an’ build ’em another weed shack.
Jus’ like gophers.
Got so use’ to it they don’t even get mad no more, this fella says.
They jus’ figger it’s like bad weather.”
“Sure was bad weather for me that night,” said Tom.
They moved up the wide highway.
And the sun’s warmth made them shiver. “Gettin’ snappy in the mornin’,” said Tom. “Winter’s on the way.
I jus’ hope we can get some money ’fore it comes.
Tent ain’t gonna be nice in the winter.”
Ma sighed, and then she straightened her head.
“Tom,” she said, “we gotta have a house in the winter. I tell ya we got to.
Ruthie’s awright, but Winfiel’ ain’t so strong.
We got to have a house when the rains come.
I heard it jus’ rains cats aroun’ here.”
“We’ll get a house, Ma.
You res’ easy.
You gonna have a house.”
“Jus’ so’s it’s got a roof an’ a floor. Jus’ to keep the little fellas off ’n the groun’.”
“We’ll try, Ma.”
“I don’ wanna worry ya now.”
“We’ll try, Ma.”
“I jus’ get panicky sometimes,” she said. “I jus’ lose my spunk.”
“I never seen you when you lost it.”