place in Los after I borned this baby-I wouldn't
be afraid of getting in a
house
some place. Maybe I
could get enough money to buy some clothes or
something. I'd rather be in a
house
some place that
was nice than .... "
The baby kicked her again. She held her hands
over her belly. She didn't want to do any more starv-
ing to death. She didn't want to be tired like this any
more. She could go to Los Angeles and be a whore,
and that would be better than starving to death and
being tired. Whores always had good clothes and
nice clean hands, and they went on vacations, on boat
trips, and met nice rich men, and never told the men
that they had anything to do with being a girl in a
house; and sometimes they could marry some rich
man and never let him know anything about being
anything.
Mary took her hands off her belly and rolled a
cigarette, and when she licked the paper she saw a
man coming, walking in the mud, down the street
toward them.
Mary's baby did a flip inside her, and she felt
cold and suddenly scared to death.
The man was just like her pa, only he was smaller,
but he had whiskers and tobacco complexion, and he
looked like he was from Arkansas.
"Well, say!" said the old man. "Hi, there
I"
"Hi," said the man, stepping in the mud.
The women didn't say
anything.
"Well," said the old man, "Well, now, John.
Where you been, John?"
"Imperial," said John.
"Well, now," said the old man. "Well, now."
The women didn't say anything.
"Well, now," said the old man, looking around at
the women.
"Good even', Mary," said John.
"Stand up, Mary," said the old man. "Show
John."
Mary stood up, then s'at right down again.
"Well, now," said John.
The old man giggled. Then the old man said,
"What you been do in' in the valley, John, boy?"
John was still looking at Mary's belly. He said,
without looking at the old man, "Oh, one thing and
another. Pickin'
a little cotton-playin'
a little
poker."
"Well," said the old man.
"Won a little money," said John, looking away
from Mary's belly. "How you folks been doin' ?"
"We git another week here," said the old man.
"We got two weeks already."
"Where you goin' then ?"
"God A'mighty, I don't know," said the old man.
"Where you goin'?"
"Well-I
won a little money. I don't know just
where I'm goin'."
"We need a little money," said the old man, look-
ing at Mary.
PARTISAN
REVIEW AND ANVIL
"Sure," said John. "Everybody needs a little
money." He didn't look at Mary when he said this.
"Well," said the old man. "Well, sir." He rocked
back and forth on the step. Then, "Why don't you
sit down, John, boy? What you standin' for ?Sit
down by Norma there-ain't
she growed? My!"
John looked down at Norma and waited for her
to move. She didn't move.
"Can I sit by you, Norma ?" said John.
"Move over there, Norma, and let John sit by
you- sit by her, John. You won't bite old John, will
you, honey?"
Norma moved over, moving like a mechanical
doll.
"My, you're gettin' big," said John.
"She's pretty, ain't she, John?" said the old man.
"All she eats is beans and biscuits-I don't know
how she gets so pretty."
"'Right pretty," said John.
The old man moved restlessly on the step.
Suddenly the old lady got up and went inside and
slammed the door.
"Ha," said the old man. "Ha! what's the matter
with that woman?"
Inside the rattling dishes rattled faster.
"Yes, sir!
Right
pretty," said John.
Norma didn't move. Her neck was erect and stiff,
and she didn't move her head.
The old man kept moving restlessly on the step.
He kept spitting into the street.
"I'd like to have a pretty girl to go to a show or
somethin' with me," said John.
Norma turned her eyes toward John, not looking
at John but past the side of his face.
"N
0,"
said Norma.
"Now, Norma," said the old man.
"No," said Norma.
"Maybe a pretty girl would like to have a new
dress," said John.
Norma turned her head, running her fixed eyes
past John's face, turning her head around on her
shoulders like an owl. She looked at Mary, but
Mary sat with her hands on her belly and looked at
the toes of her shoes. Mary did not look up from
the toes of her shoes. Norma turned back, turning
her head like an owl, with her eyes wide open.
"A blue one?" said John.
"Sure-sure,
a blue one," said the old man.
"Like the one I gave Mary?" said John.
The old man giggled. "Sure-sure.
Just like that
one, honey."
Mary got up and went inside and sat down on the
bed where she and Sarah-Jane and Norma slept.
The old lady and the old man slept in the other bed
on the other side of the stovt;:. Sarah-Jane had finish-
ed with the dishes and was playing with some post-
cards. The old lady was sitting on the bed, talking
to herself and jerking her head from side to side.
II
