Blue with
White Dots
CHARLES BRADFORD
IN THE evening everybody was tired, and nobody
wanted to talk. All those cannery workers sat out in
front of their cabins, company cabins, and didn't
talk-just
sat and looked at the ground. The kids
that belonged to all those families played in the
street, in the mud that came from the evening water-
ing, fooling at making trains and lakes and rivers,
playing without making any loud noises-no yelling
or screaming back and forth. No fighting between
these kids.
They were tired, too.
It was nice to sit in the cool of the evenings after
working in the steam clouds all day long and hand-
ling sticky fruit. It was swell just to sit and enjoy
the cool. It wasn't good to talk-better
to sit quiet
-no good to think, only good to sit quiet in the cool
and not talk and not think. Sit and enjoy the evening,
and enjoying the evening more because of the ex-
haustion from the steam clouds in the cannery build-
ing and handling the sticky, fuzzy fruit at a hundred
miles an hour all day long, moving hands and arms
like lightning-pit
in the box, peach on the belt,
pull a peach from the box and spoon it all around
the middle, cut it all around the middle-pit
in the
b.ox, p~ach on the belt, all day long as fast as pos-
sIble wIth the steam clouds rolling overhead-that's
what made it good to be able to sit in the cool of the
eveni?g without talking and without thinking, only
knowIng the exhaustion and the worry of how to eat
after the fruit was gone.
Mary Piper was carrying a bastard baby. It kick-
ed her belly, and she felt it and put her hands on her
belly. Her rna, who had carried half-a-dozen in her
time, sat on the top step by Mary. Her pa, who had
a creased and dirty neck, a whiskered face and a
tobacco-juice complexion, was below her, one step.
Norma, kid sister, sat by Pa. Sarah-Jane was play-
ing in the mud.
"She better do them dishes," said Pa.
"Sarah-J ane," screeched the old lady. "You come
here to me
I"
Mary and Norma moved when the old lady
screeched. It was like they
had
to move when the old
lady screeched. The old lady had been screeching
for a long, long time.
The kid got up out of the mud and came running.
She dodged a baby with a muddy diaper that was
10
MARCH,
1936
crying in the street. She came running, with her
knees knocking together and her red hair straggling.
She came running, leaning forward so her little
breasts wouldn't joggle and hurt.
"What, rna?" said Sarah-Jane.
"Git in there and do them dishes. All you do is
play. How many times do I have to tell you, you
got to do them dishes. All you do is play."
"All right, rna."
She walked up the steps, passed the old man, and
he couldn't resist giving her a little shove. She
stumbled and fell into Mary and poked her elbow
into Mary's belly.
"Ouch
I"
said Mary. "Ouch-my God
I"
"Lookit you
I"
screeched the old lady. "Oh, my!"
Sarah-Jane scrambled out of their way and went
inside. After that came the rattling of the dishes
from inside.
lilt's nice when they water," said the old lady.
Nobody answered.
"Ho-hum," said the old man and stretched.
Mary thought, "My God-I
got a baby now,
and what am I going to do with a baby and no dad
for the baby. When this fruit's gone, then I'll have
this baby, and what can anybody do with a baby
with no money to have it with? Maybe I ought to
do something-everybody does something when they
get a baby. Maybe I waited too long. Maybe I
waited too long to do anything to keep from having
a baby. Maybe it'll be a good thing for me to have
this baby. If I do have this baby, I'll beat it to town
and never let anybody know where I beat it to.
A
girl can make a living in town. I'll go to Los, and
I'll have this baby down there. I think a girl can
make a living in Los. I ain't afraid to go to Los.
Maybe it'll be better to make my living in Los and
not cut any more fruit and not pick any more of that
cotton and not work in the olives any more. I think
I could go to Los and make a living there and buy
me some good clothes and have this baby. I can save
up some money .... "
Mary thought again, "Maybe I ought to do some-
thing about having this baby-maybe if I'd hit my-
self good and hard in the belly ....
"
Norma got up and started down the street.
Norma's hips were nice hips, and she made them
jump
when she walked. Norma and Mary practiced
that for a long time. Mary didn't practice any more.
But before Mary got a baby, she could do it better
than Norma.
Norma went down the street, but not very far-
she walked slow and jumped her backsides each time
she took a step. But she didn't get very far, be-
cause the old man called her back.
"Norma
I"
That was all the old man said. Norma turned
around slow and came walking back with' a sulk in
her step and sat down.
Mary thought, "If I could get in a
house
some
