“Now what ya want?”
“Shut off the engine an’ climb up here,” Tom said.
Al got into the seat, drove off into the ditch, cut lights and engine. He climbed over the tail gate. “Awright,” he said.
Tom crawled over the pots and knelt in front of Ma. “Look,” he said. “It says they want cotton pickers. I seen that sign. Now I been tryin’ to figger how I’m gonna stay with you, an’ not make no trouble. When my face gets well, maybe it’ll be awright, but not now. Ya see them cars back there. Well, the pickers live in them. Now maybe they’s work there. How about if you get work there an’ live in one of them cars?”
“How ’bout you?” Ma demanded.
“Well, you seen that crick, all full a brush. Well, I could hide in that brush an’ keep outa sight. An’ at night you could bring me out somepin to eat. I seen a culvert, little ways back. I could maybe sleep in there.”
Pa said, “By God, I’d like to get my hands on some cotton! There’s work I un’erstan’.”
“Them cars might be a purty place to stay,” said Ma. “Nice an’ dry. You think they’s enough brush to hide in, Tom?”
“Sure. I been watchin’. I could fix up a little place, hide away. Soon’s my face gets well, I’d come out.”
“You gonna scar purty bad,” said Ma.
“Hell! Ever’body’s got scars.”
“I picked four hunderd poun’s oncet,” Pa said. “‘Course it was a good heavy crop. If we all pick, we could get some money.”
“Could get some meat,” said Al. “What’ll we do right now?”
“Go back there, an’ sleep in the truck till mornin’,” Pa said. “Git work in the mornin’. I can see them bolls even in the dark.”
“How ’bout Tom?” Ma asked.
“Now you jus’ forget me, Ma. I’ll take me a blanket. You look out on the way back. They’s a nice culvert. You can bring me some bread or potatoes, or mush, an’ just leave it there. I’ll come get it.”
“Well!”
“Seems like good sense to me,” said Pa.
“It is good sense,” Tom insisted. “Soon’s my face gets a little better, why I’ll come out an’ go to pickin’.”
“Well, awright,” Ma agreed. “But don’ you take no chancet. Don’ let nobody see you for a while.”
Tom crawled to the back of the truck. “I’ll jus’ take this here blanket. You look for that culvert on the way back, Ma.”
“Take care,” she begged. “You take care.”
“Sure,” said Tom. “Sure I will.” He climbed the tail board, stepped down the bank. “Good night,” he said.
Ma watched his figure blur with the night and disappear into the bushes beside the stream. “Dear Jesus, I hope it’s awright,” she said.
Al asked, “You want I should go back now?”
“Yeah,” said Pa.
“Go slow,” said Ma. “I wanta be sure an’ see that culvert he said about. I got to see that.”
Al backed and filled on the narrow road, until he had reversed his direction. He drove slowly back to the line of boxcars. The truck lights showed the cat-walks up to the wide car doors. The doors were dark. No one moved in the night. Al shut off his lights.
“You and Uncle John climb up back,” he said to Rose of Sharon. “I’ll sleep in the seat here.”
Uncle John helped the heavy girl to climb up over the tail board. Ma piled the pots in a small space. The family lay wedged close together in the back of the truck.
A baby cried, in long jerking cackles, in one of the boxcars. A dog trotted out, sniffing and snorting, and moved slowly around the Joad truck. The tinkle of moving water came from the streambed.
CHAPTER 27
COTTON PICKERS WANTED- placards on the road, handbills out, orange-colored handbills- Cotton Pickers Wanted.
Here, up this road, it says.
The dark green plants stringy now, and the heavy bolls clutched in the pod. White cotton spilling out like popcorn.
Like to get our hands on the bolls. Tenderly, with the fingertips.
I’m a good picker.
Here’s the man, right here.
I aim to pick some cotton.
Got a bag?
Well, no, I ain’t.
Cost ya a dollar, the bag. Take it out o’ your first hunderd and fifty. Eighty cents a hunderd first time over the field. Ninety cents second time over. Get your bag there. One dollar. ‘F you ain’t got the buck, we’ll take it out of your first hunderd and fifty. That’s fair, and you know it.
Sure it’s fair. Good cotton bag, last all season. An’ when she’s wore out, draggin’, turn ‘er aroun’, use the other end. Sew up the open end. Open up the wore end. And when both ends is gone, why, that’s nice cloth! Makes a nice pair a summer drawers. Makes nightshirts. And well, hell- a cotton bag’s a nice thing.
Hang it around your waist. Straddle it, drag it between your legs. She drags light at first. And your fingertips pick out the fluff, and the hands go twisting into the sack between your legs. Kids come along behind; got no bags for the kids- use a gunny sack or put it in your ol’ man’s bag. She hangs heavy, some, now. Lean forward, hoist ‘er along. I’m a good hand with cotton. Finger-wise, boll-wise. Jes’ move along talkin’, an’ maybe singin’ till the bag gets heavy. Fingers go right to it. Fingers know. Eyes see the work- and don’t see it.
Talkin’ across the rows-
They was a lady back home, won’t mention no names- had a nigger kid all of a sudden. Nobody knowed before. Never did hunt out the nigger. Couldn’ never hold up her head no more. But I started to tell- she was a good picker.
Now the bag is heavy, boost it along. Set your hips and tow it along, like a work horse. And the kids pickin’ into the old man’s sack. Good crop here. Gets thin in the low places, thin and stringy. Never seen no cotton like this here California cotton. Long fiber, bes’ damn cotton I ever seen. Spoil the lan’ pretty soon. Like a fella wants to buy some cotton lan’- Don’ buy her, rent her. Then when she’s cottoned on down, move someplace new.
Lines of people moving across the fields. Fingerwise. Inquisitive fingers snick in and out and find the bolls. Hardly have to look.
Bet I could pick cotton if I was blind. Got a feelin’ for a cotton boll. Pick clean, clean as a whistle.
Sack’s full now. Take her to the scales. Argue. Scale man says you got rocks to make weight. How ’bout him? His scales is fixed. Sometimes he’s right, you got rocks in the sack. Sometimes you’re right, the scales is crooked. Sometimes both; rocks an’ crooked scales. Always argue, always fight. Keeps your head up. An’ his head up. What’s a few rocks? Jus’ one, maybe. Quarter pound? Always argue.
Back with the empty sack. Got our own book. Mark in the weight. Got to. If they know you’re markin’, then they don’t cheat. But God he’p ya if ya don’ keep your own weight.
This is good work. Kids runnin’ aroun’. Heard ’bout the cotton-pickin’ machine?
Yeah, I heard.
Think it’ll ever come?
Well, if it comes- fella says it’ll put han’ pickin’ out.
Come night. All tired. Good pickin’, though. Got three dollars, me an’ the ol’ woman an’ the kids.
The cars move to the cotton fields. The cotton camps set up. The screened high trucks and trailers are piled high with white fluff. Cotton clings to the fence wires, and cotton rolls in little balls along the road when the wind blows. And clean white cotton, going to the gin. And the big, lumpy bales standing, going to the compress. And cotton clinging to your clothes and stuck to your whiskers. Blow your nose, there’s cotton in your nose.
Hunch along now, fill up the bag ‘fore dark. Wise fingers seeking in the bolls. Hips hunching along, dragging the bag. Kids are tired now, in the evenin’. They trip over their feet in the cultivated earth. And the sun is going down.
Wisht it would last. It ain’t much money, God knows, but I wisht it would last.
On the highway the old cars piling in, drawn by the handbills.
Got a cotton bag?
No.
Cost ya a dollar, then.
If they was on’y fifty of us, we could stay awhile, but they’s five hunderd. She won’t last hardly at all. I knowed a fella never did git his bag paid out. Ever’ job he got a new bag, an’ ever’ fiel’ was done ‘fore he got his weight.
Try for God’s sake ta save a little money! Winter’s comin’ fast. They ain’t no work at all in California in the winter. Fill up the bag ‘fore it’s dark. I seen that fella put two clods in.