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.”