The Four Winds

Loreda looked back. “No one is following us, Mom.”

Follow us, Elsa thought. Please. Don’t let us be alone. It will all be for nothing then. Jack said they all needed to do it, together, to stop the means of production.

“Fair pay!” Jack shouted behind her. “Fair pay!”

The walk into the cotton field was the longest six minutes of Elsa’s life. She took her place in a row and turned around.

For a moment the crowd of pickers stood there, motionless, staring at Elsa and her children, alone in the field.

Ike stepped forward first, pushed his way out of the crowd, and began walking toward the open gate.

“Look, Mom,” Loreda said under her breath as one by one the workers followed Ike, walked into the fields, and filled the rows.

As one, the workers turned to face Welty.

“Get to work, men,” Welty yelled.

As if there were only men here.

Elsa stared out at the people standing in the rows of cotton, her people. Her kind. Their courage humbled her. “You know what to do!” Elsa yelled.

The workers sat down.

* * *

AS DUSK DREW NEAR, the strikers stood up and walked out of the fields, under the angry gazes of the boss and his men.

The strikers had filled the fields all day, sitting quietly.

Jack waited for them down the road. He had a bloody lip and a blackening eye; still, he gave the group a smile. “Good job, everyone. We got their attention. Tomorrow we need to get an even earlier start. They’ll be ready this time, and they won’t send trucks to pick you up. We’ll meet at four A.M. Outside the El Centro Hotel.”

They began the long walk home, all of them together.

Loreda was jubilant. “Not a single boll of cotton was picked today. That’ll teach Mr. Fat Cat not to take advantage of us anymore,” she said.

Elsa walked beside Jack. She wished she could feel as happy as her daughter did, but her worry outpaced her enthusiasm. She could tell most of the strikers felt as she did. Looking at Jack’s bruised face, she said, “You certainly got their attention, I see.”

He moved closer. His fingers brushed hers as they walked. “When a man resorts to violence, he’s scared,” Jack said. “That’s a good sign.”

“Did we make it worse for ourselves?”

“They’ll be ready for us tomorrow,” Jack said.

“How long will all this last?” she asked. “Without relief, we are going to be in trouble, Jack. They won’t give us credit at the store if we don’t pick, and none of us has any savings. We can’t hang on for long…”

“I know,” Jack said.

They came to the Welty growers’ camp. The workers who lived there turned in, heading back to their tents and cabins. Loreda and Ant ran off ahead. Others kept walking down the road.

Jack and Elsa stopped, looked at each other. “You were amazing today,” he said quietly.

“All I did was sit down.”

“It was bold and you know it. I told you they’d listen to you.”

She touched the swollen purple skin below his eye. “You need to be careful tomorrow.”

“I’m always careful.” He gave her a smile that should have been comforting but wasn’t.