Floyd said patiently, “I know ya jus’ got here. They’s stuff ya got to learn. If you’d let me tell ya, it’d save ya somepin. If ya don’ let me tell ya, then ya got to learn the hard way. You ain’t gonna settle down cause they ain’t no work to settle ya. An’ your belly ain’t gonna let ya settle down. Now- that’s straight.”
“Wisht I could look aroun’ first,” Tom said uneasily.
A sedan drove through the camp and pulled up at the next tent. A man in overalls and a blue shirt climbed out. Floyd called to him, “Any luck?”
“There ain’t a han’-turn of work in the whole darn country, not till cotton pickin’.” And he went into the ragged tent.
“See?” said Floyd.
“Yeah, I see. But two hunderd miles, Jesus!”
“Well, you ain’t settlin’ down no place for a while. Might’s well make up your mind to that.”
“We better go,” Al said.
Tom asked, “When is they gonna be work aroun’ here?”
“Well, in a month the cotton’ll start. If you got plenty money you can wait for the cotton.”
Tom said, “Ma ain’t a-gonna wanta move. She’s all tar’d out.”
Floyd shrugged his shoulders. “I ain’t a-tryin’ to push ya north. Suit yaself. I jus’ tol’ ya what I heard.” He picked the oily gasket from the running board and fitted it carefully on the block and pressed it down. “Now,” he said to Al, “‘f you want to give me a han’ with that engine head.”
Tom watched while they set the heavy head gently down over the head bolts and dropped it evenly. “Have to talk about it.” he said.
Floyd said, “I don’t want nobody but your folks to know about it. Jus’ you. An’ I wouldn’t of tol’ you if ya brother didn’ he’p me out here.”
Tom said, “Well, I sure thank ya for tellin’ us. We got to figger it out. Maybe we’ll go.”
Al said, “By God, I think I’ll go if the res’ goes or not. I’ll hitch there.”
“An’ leave the fambly?” Tom asked.
“Sure. I’d come back with my jeans plumb fulla jack. Why not?”
“Ma ain’t gonna like no such thing,” Tom said. “An’ Pa, he ain’t gonna like it neither.”
Floyd set the nuts and screwed them down as far as he could with his fingers. “Me an’ my wife come out with our folks,” he said. “Back home we wouldn’ of thought of goin’ away. Wouldn’ of thought of it. But, hell, we was all up north a piece and I come down here, an’ they moved on, an’ now God knows where they are. Been lookin’ an’ askin’ about ’em ever since.” He fitted his wrench to the enginehead bolts and turned them down evenly, one turn to each nut, around and around the series.
Tom squatted down beside the car and squinted his eyes up the line of tents. A little stubble was beaten into the earth between the tents. “No, sir,” he said, “Ma ain’t gonna like you goin’ off.”
“Well, seems to me a lone fella got more chance of work.”
“Maybe, but Ma ain’t gonna like it at all.”
Two cars loaded with disconsolate men drove down into the camp. Floyd lifted his eyes, but he didn’t ask them about their luck. Their dusty faces were sad and resistant. The sun was sinking now, and the yellow sunlight fell on the Hooverville and on the willows behind it. The children began to come out of the tents, to wander about the camp. And from the tents the women came and built their little fires. The men gathered in squatting groups and talked together.
A new Chevrolet coupe turned off the highway and headed down into the camp. It pulled to the center of the camp, Tom said, “Who’s this? They don’t belong here.”
Floyd said, “I dunno- cops, maybe.”
The car door opened and a man got out and stood beside the car. His companion remained seated. Now all the squatting men looked at the newcomers and the conversation was still. And the women building their fires looked secretly at the shiny car. The children moved closer with elaborate circuitousness, edging inward in long curves.
Floyd put down his wrench. Tom stood up. Al wiped his hand on his trousers. The three strolled toward the Chevrolet. The man who had got out of the car was dressed in khaki trousers and a flannel shirt. He wore a flat-brimmed Stetson hat. A sheaf of papers was held in his shirt pocket by a little fence of fountain pens and yellow pencils; and from his hip pocket protruded a notebook with metal covers. He moved to one of the groups of squatting men, and they looked up at him, suspicious and quiet. They watched him and did not move; the whites of their eyes showed beneath the irises, for they did not raise their heads to look. Tom and Al and Floyd strolled casually near.
The man said, “You men want to work?” Still they looked quietly, suspiciously. And men from all over the camp moved near.
One of the squatting men spoke at last. “Sure we wanta work. Where’s at’s work?”
“Tulare County. Fruit’s opening up. Need a lot of pickers.”
Floyd spoke up. “You doin’ the hiring?”
“Well, I’m contracting the land.”
The men were in a compact group now. An overalled man took off his black hat and combed back his long black hair with his fingers. “What you payin’?” he asked.
“Well, can’t tell exactly, yet. ‘Bout thirty cents, I guess.”
“Why can’t you tell? You took the contract, didn’ you?”
“That’s true,” the khaki man said. “But it’s keyed to the price. Might be a little more, might be a little less.”
Floyd stepped out ahead. He said quietly, “I’ll go, mister. You’re a contractor, an’ you got a license. You jus’ show your license, an’ then you give us an order to go to work, an’ where, an’ when, an’ how much we’ll get, an’ you sign that, an’ we’ll all go.”
The contractor turned, scowling. “You telling me how to run my own business?”
Floyd said, “‘F we’re workin’ for you, it’s our business too.”
“Well, you ain’t telling me what to do. I told you I need men.”
Floyd said angrily, “You didn’ say how many men, an’ you didn’ say what you’d pay.”
“Goddamn it, I don’t know yet.”
“If you don’ know, you got no right to hire men.”
“I got a right to run my own business my own way. If you men want to sit here on your ass, O.K. I’m out getting men for Tulare County. Going to need a lot of men.”
Floyd turned to the crowd of men. They were standing up now, looking quietly from one speaker to the other. Floyd said, “Twicet now I’ve fell for that. Maybe he needs a thousan’ men. He’ll get five thousan’ there, an’ he’ll pay fifteen cents an hour. An’ you poor bastards’ll have to take it ’cause you’ll be hungry. ‘F he wants to hire men, let him hire ’em an’ write out an’ say what he’s gonna pay. Ast ta see his license. He ain’t allowed to contract men without a license.”
The contractor turned to the Chevrolet and called, “Joe!” His companion looked out and then swung the car door open and stepped out. He wore riding breeches and laced boots. A heavy pistol holster hung on a cartridge belt around his waist. On his brown shirt a deputy sheriff’s star was pinned. He walked heavily over. His face was set to a thin smile. “What you want?” The holster slid back and forth on his hip.
“Ever see this guy before, Joe?”
The deputy asked, “Which one?”
“This fella.” The contractor pointed to Floyd.
“What’d he do?” The deputy smiled at Floyd.
“He’s talkin’ red, agitating trouble.”
“Hm-m-m.” The deputy moved slowly around to see Floyd’s profile, and the color slowly flowed up Floyd’s face.
“You see?” Floyd cried. “If this guy’s on the level, would he bring a cop along?”
“Ever see ‘im before?” the contractor insisted.
“Hmm, seems like I have. Las’ week when that used-car lot was busted into. Seems like I seen this fella hangin’ aroun’. Yep! I’d swear it’s the same fella.” Suddenly the smile left his face. “Get in that car,” he said, and he unhooked the strap that covered the butt of his automatic.
Tom said, “You got nothin’ on him.”
The deputy swung around. “‘F you’d like to go in too, you jus’ open your trap once more. They was two fellas hangin’ around that lot.”
“I wasn’t even in the State las’ week,” Tom said.
“Well, maybe you’re wanted someplace else. You keep your trap shut.”
The contractor turned back to the men. “You fellas don’t want ta listen to these goddamn reds. Troublemakers- they’ll get you in trouble. Now I can use all of you in Tulare County.”