This is for Forrest Athearn and for his great-grandfather Forrest Dallas sandra
chapter one Broken Down The battered old Model T Ford sputtered and stalled With a sigh sixteen-year-old Tom Turner guided it to the side of the dirt road He slid out of the worn seat on the driver’s side and stood next to the vehicle stopping a moment as he heard a hissing sound He shook his head The transmission's transmission's bad and it looks like we blew a tire too Hallie Turner took a deep breath As Mommy used to say if it’s not one thing it’s another More bad luck Not so bad Tom said He pointed to a grove of trees If we had to break down at least we found a nice shady spot Hallie glanced around She said to the little boy on the 1
seat beside her Look Benny there’s a stream Benny brightened I like water he said He slid over the seat jumping out on the driver’s side He had been sitting between Hallie and Tom Careful Benny Hallie called She watched her little brother run toward the water Don’t worry It looks like there’s not but a trickle of water in it Tom told her That’s good You know how he is with water He could drown in a tin cup Hallie opened the passenger door of the Tin Lizzie and got out She looked around It was indeed a pretty spot the trees the stream and a patch of yellow dandelions nodding in the sun She stretched and dug her bare toes into the dirt She shook her dress which was covered with dust that had blown in through the open window The car too was covered with grime The whole world except for this little spot seemed to be dirty When the dust had gotten too bad Hallie had rolled up the car windows and stuffed rags where they didn’t quite close That didn’t stop the dirt from blowing in She had to wipe the inside of the car clean every night I guess if the car’s broke down 2 SOMEPLACE to CALL HOME
Chapter One we’ll be staying for a spell she said She grasped the handle of the door to close it and quickly removed her hand She should have known better than to touch the metal It was burning hot from the sun We don’t have much choice I can patch the tire again Tom glanced at the tire that seemed to be more patches than tire But we’ll have to replace the transmission How much money do we have left Four dollars and twelve cents Hallie didn’t have to look into the ragged coin purse She knew to the penny how much was in it Not enough for the transmission I’ll have to find work Hallie laughed Where are you going to do that We’ve tried everywhere Not more than two days work in the field in the past two weeks If we hadn’t found those tomatoes last week we’d be eating grass She thought of the deserted house they’d stopped at with three perfectly good tomato plants loaded with fruit She shook her head at the wonder of it They guessed the farmer had been dusted out That’s what folks said when the dust storms destroyed crops forcing farmers to desert their homes Somehow the tomato plants had thrived They were 3
