A few months after Maureen is born, a squad car tries to pull the family over, because the brake lights aren't working. Dad refuses to stop, and a high-speed chase ensues. Dad, fortunately, finds an empty garage to hide in, but the next day, he announces they're leaving Blythe, because it's become too hot to live there. They decide to go to a town named Battle Mountain in northern Nevada. Dad has done research on the town and learns there is gold there. So, they rent a U-Haul truck to carry the Prospector and the few other items they own. Unfortunately, there's no room for the kids up front, so all four, including the new baby, must ride in the back illegally. Maureen cries and cries and the children can't get her to stop. Then, they hit a huge pothole, and the back doors fly open. Brian tries to crawl to the edge of the truck and capture the doors as they swing shut, but they nearly jerk him out, and he retreats to the relative safety near the cab with his sisters. For some strange reason, Maureen stops crying at this point, but they are still in terrible danger.
Then, a pair of headlights pulls up behind them and the driver sees the children
in the truck. He pulls up beside the cab and begins honking his horn and
flashing his lights. Dad finally comes to a stop and checks out the back
of the truck. Ironically, he is furious at the kids, but Jeannette recognizes
that it's because he's afraid. They take time to go to the bathroom and
then they calmly continue on their way.
This short chapter once again reinforces the idea that Rex and Rose
Mary Walls are, at the least, neglectful of their children, and at the
worst, abusive. To put any of the children in the back of a truck that
way is dangerous, but to put them in charge of a baby only a few months
old is almost criminal. Ironically, Jeannette never passes judgment against
her parents. In fact, with great maturity, she recognizes that her father's
anger is rooted in his fear for them.
Battle Mountain was a mining post, settled by people one hundred years
before, with hopes of striking it rich. Unfortunately, there is nothing
grand about it. The Walls family moves into a wooden building at the edge
of town that had once been the railroad depot. They use giant industrial
cable spools for furniture, and the children sleep on cardboard boxes.
They actually like the boxes as being adventuresome and don't want their
parents to buy them beds. Shortly after they move in, Mom decides they
need a piano, and Dad finds as cheap upright when a saloon in the next
town goes out of business. They bring it home in a neighbor's pickup truck,
but getting it in the depot has to be accomplished with a series of ropes
and pulleys. Dad has Mom get behind the wheel of the truck with his plan
being to have her ease the vehicle forward, pulling the piano into the
depot. He and the kids will guide the piano up the ramp as the truck eases
it in. Unfortunately, Mom, as usual, has never gotten the hang of driving
and hits the gas pedal hard. The piano jerks ahead out of Dad and the
kids control, and by the time Mom comes to a stop, it has gone through
the rear door and into the back yard. It is impossible to take it back
in, because the railroad tracks prevent the truck from getting into position.
So, the piano stays right where it is, and Mom takes her sheet music outside
every so often and plays in the great outdoors!
This section is both sad and hilarious at the same time. The reader has to be moved by the fact that the children must sleep on cardboard boxes, but Mom's debacle with piano is extremely funny. It's also ironic that a family that is always on the move now is living in a railroad depot!
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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