page 5

        Danny in the back seat wants a cup a water. Little fella's thristy.

        Listen to that gasket whistle.

        Chre-rist! There she went. Blowed tube an' casing all to hell. Have to fix her. Save that casing to make boots; cut 'em out an' stick 'em inside a weak place.

        Cars pulled up beside the road, engine heads off, tires mended. Cars limping along 66 like wounded things, panting and struggling. Too hot, loose connections, loose bearings rattling bodies.

        Danny wants a cup a water.

        People in flight along 66, And the concrete road shone like a mirror under the sun, and in the distance the heat made it seem that there were pools of water in the road.

        Danny wants a cup a water.

        He'll have to wait, poor little fella. He's hot. Nex' service station. Service station, like the fella says.

        Two hundred and fifty thousand people over the road, Fifty thousand old cars-wounded, steaming. Wrecks along the road, abandoned. Well, what happened to them? What happened to the folks in that car? Did they walk? Where are they? Where does the courage come from?

        Where does the terrible faith come from? And here's a story you can hardly believe, but it's true, and it's funny and it's beautiful. There was a family of twelve and they were forced off the land. They had no car. They built a trailer out of junk and loaded it with their possessions. They pulled it to the side of 66 and waited. And pretty soon a sedan picked them up. Five of them rode in the sedan and seven on the trailer, and a dog on the trailer. They got to California in two jumps. The man who pulled them fed them. And that's true. But how can such courage be, and such faith in their own species? Very few things would teach such faith.

        The people in flight from the terror behind- strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.

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