Tom asked, “What’s this here?”
“Agricultural inspection. We got to look over your stuff. Got any vegetables or seeds?”
“No,” said Tom.
“Well, we got to look over your stuff. You got to unload.”
Now Ma climbed heavily down from the truck. Her face was swollen and her eyes were hard. “Look, mister. We got a sick ol’ lady. We got to get her to a doctor. We can’t wait.” She seemed to fight with hysteria. “You can’t make us wait.”
“Yeah? Well, we got to look you over.”
“I swear we ain’t got anything!” Ma cried. “I swear it. An’ Granma’s awful sick.”
“You don’t look so good yourself,” the officer said.
Ma pulled herself up the back of the truck, hoisted herself with huge strength. “Look,” she said.
The officer shot a flashlight beam up on the old shrunken face. “By God, she is,” he said. “You swear you got no seeds or fruits or vegetables, no corn, no oranges?”
“No, no. I swear it!”
“Then go ahead. You can get a doctor in Barstow. That’s only eight miles. Go on ahead.”
Tom climbed in and drove on.
The officer turned to his companion. “I couldn’ hold em.”
“Maybe it was a bluff,” said the other.
“Oh, Jesus, no! You should of seen that ol’ woman’s face. That wasn’t no bluff.”
Tom increased his speed to Barstow, and in the little town he stopped, got out, and walked around the truck. Ma leaned out. “It’s awright,” she said. “I didn’ wanta stop there, fear we wouldn’ get acrost.”
“Yeah! But how’s Granma?”
“She’s awright- awright. Drive on. We got to get acrost.” Tom shook his head and walked back.
“Al,” he said, “I’m gonna fill her up, an’ then you drive some.” He pulled to an all-night gas station and filled the tank and the radiator, and filled the crank case. Then Al slipped under the wheel and Tom took the outside, with Pa in the middle. They drove away into the darkness and the little hills near Barstow were behind them.
Tom said, “I don’ know what’s got into Ma. She’s flighty as a dog with a flea in his ear. Wouldn’ a took long to look over the stuff. An’ she says Granma’s sick; an’ now she says Granma’s awright. I can’t figger her out. She ain’t right. S’pose she wore her brains out on the trip.”
Pa said, “Ma’s almost like she was when she was a girl. She was a wild one then. She wasn’ scairt of nothin’. I thought havin’ all the kids an’ workin’ took it out a her, but I guess it ain’t. Christ! When she got that jack handle back there, I tell you I wouldn’ wanna be the fella took it away from her.”
“I dunno what’s got into her,” Tom said. “Maybe she’s jus’ tar’d out.”
Al said, “I won’t be doin’ no weepin’ an’ a-moanin’ to get through. I got this goddamn car on my soul.”
Tom said, “Well, you done a damn good job a pickin’. We ain’t had hardly no trouble with her at all.”
All night they bored through the hot darkness, and jackrabbits scuttled into the lights and dashed away in long jolting leaps. And the dawn came up behind them when the lights of Mojave were ahead. And the dawn showed high mountains to the west. They filled with water and oil at Mojave and crawled into the mountains, and the dawn was about them.
Tom said, “Jesus, the desert’s past! Pa, Al, for Christ sakes! The desert’s past!”
“I’m too goddamned tired to care,” said Al.
“Want me to drive?”
“No, wait awhile.”
They drove through Tehachapi in the morning glow, and the sun came up behind them, and then- suddenly they saw the great valley below them. Al jammed on the brake and stopped in the middle of the road, and, “Jesus Christ! Look!” he said. The vineyards, the orchards, the great flat valley, green and beautiful, the trees set in rows, and the farm houses.
And Pa said, “God Almighty!” The distant cities, the little towns in the orchard land, and the morning sun, golden on the valley. A car honked behind them. Al pulled to the side of the road and parked.
“I want ta look at her.” The grain fields golden in the morning, and the willow lines, the eucalyptus trees in rows.
Pa sighed, “I never knowed they was anything like her.” The peach trees and the walnut groves, and the dark green patches of oranges. And red roofs among the trees, and barns- rich barns. Al got out and stretched his legs.
He called, “Ma- come look. We’re there!”
Ruthie and Winfield scrambled down from the car, and then they stood, silent and awestruck, embarrassed before the great valley. The distance was thinned with haze, and the land grew softer and softer in the distance. A windmill flashed in the sun, and its turning blades were like a little heliograph, far away. Ruthie and Winfield looked at it, and Ruthie whispered, “It’s California.”
Winfield moved his lips silently over the syllables. “There’s fruit,” he said aloud.
Casy and Uncle John, Connie and Rose of Sharon climbed down. And they stood silently. Rose of Sharon had started to brush her hair back, when she caught sight of the valley and her hand dropped slowly to her side.
Tom said, “Where’s Ma? I want Ma to see it. Look, Ma! Come here, Ma.” Ma was climbing slowly, stiffly, down the back board. Tom looked at her. “My God, Ma, you sick?” Her face was stiff and putty-like, and her eyes seemed to have sunk deep into her head, and the rims were red with weariness. Her feet touched the ground and she braced herself by holding the truck-side.
Her voice was a croak. “Ya say we’re acrost?”
Tom pointed to the great valley. “Look!”
She turned her head, and her mouth opened a little. Her fingers went to her throat and gathered a little pinch of skin and twisted gently. “Thank God!” she said. “The fambly’s here.” Her knees buckled and she sat down on the running board.
“You sick, Ma?”
“No, jus’ tar’d.”
“Didn’ you get no sleep?”
“No.”
“Was Granma bad?”
Ma looked down at her hands, lying together like tired lovers in her lap. “I wisht I could wait an’ not tell you. I wisht it could be all- nice.”
Pa said, “Then Granma’s bad.”
Ma raised her eyes and looked over the valley. “Granma’s dead.”
They looked at her, all of them, and Pa asked, “When?”
“Before they stopped us las’ night.”
“So that’s why you didn’ want ’em to look.”
“I was afraid we wouldn’ get acrost,” she said. “I tol’ Granma we couldn’ he’p her. The fambly had ta get acrost. I tol’ her, tol’ her when she was a-dyin’. We couldn’ stop in the desert. There was the young ones- an’ Rosasharn’s baby. I tol’ her.” She put up her hands and covered her face for a moment. “She can get buried in a nice green place,” Ma said softly. “Trees aroun’ an’ a nice place. She got to lay her head down in California.”
The family looked at Ma with a little terror at her strength.
Tom said, “Jesus Christ! You layin’ there with her all night long!”
“The fambly hadda get acrost,” Ma said miserably.
Tom moved close to put his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’ touch me,” she said. “I’ll hol’ up if you don’ touch me. That’d get me.”
Pa said, “We got to go on now. We got to go on down.”
Ma looked up at him. “Can- can I set up front? I don’ wanna go back there no more- I’m tar’d. I’m awful tar’d.”
They climbed back on the load, and they avoided the long stiff figure covered and tucked in a comforter, even the head covered and tucked. They moved to their places and tried to keep their eyes from it- from the hump on the comforter that would be the nose, and the steep cliff that would be the jut of the chin. They tried to keep their eyes away, and they could not. Ruthie and Winfield, crowded in a forward corner as far away from the body as they could get, stared at the tucked figure.
And Ruthie whispered, “Tha’s Granma, an’ she’s dead.”
Winfield nodded solemnly. “She ain’t breathin’ at all. She’s awful dead.”
And Rose of Sharon said softly to Connie, “She was a-dyin’ right when we-”
“How’d we know?” he reassured her.
Al climbed on the load to make room for Ma in the seat. And Al swaggered a little because he was sorry. He plumped down beside Casy and Uncle John. “Well, she was ol’. Guess her time was up,” Al said. “Ever’body got to die.” Casy and Uncle John turned eyes expressionlessly on him and looked at him as though he were a curious talking bush. “Well, ain’t they?” he demanded. And the eyes looked away, leaving Al sullen and shaken.