U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [512]
"The bottom's dropped out of this dump. Time to pul out," she said. "I'm through." It was a sizzling hot day when they piled the things in the Buick and drove off up U.S. I with Tony, not in his uniform but in a new waspwaisted white linen suit, at the wheel. The Buick was so piled with bags and household junk there was hardly room for Agnes in the back seat. Tony's guitar was slung from the ceiling. Margo's ward-robetrunk was strapped on behind. "My goodness," said Agnes when she came back from the restroom of the fil -ingstation in West Palm Beach where they'd stopped for gas, "we look like a traveling tentshow." Between them they had about a hundred dol ars in cash that Margo had turned over to Agnes to keep in her black handbag. The first day Tony would talk about nothing but the hit he'd make in the movies. "If Valentino can do it, it wil be easy for me," he'd say, craning his neck to see his clear brown profile in the narrow drivingmirror at the top of the windshield.
At night they stopped in touristcamps, al sleeping in one cabin to save money, and ate out of cans. Agnes loved it. She said it was like the old days when they were on the
-392-Keith circuit and Margo was a child actress. Margo said child actress hel , it made her feel like an old crone. Towards afternoon Tony would complain of shooting pains in his wrists and Margo would have to drive.
Along the gulf coast of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisi-ana the roads were terrible. It was a relief when they got into Texas, though the weather there was showery. They thought they never would get across the state of Texas, though. Agnes said she didn't know there was so much alfalfa in the world. In El Paso they had to buy two new tires and get the brakes fixed. Agnes began to look worried when she counted over the rol of bil s in her purse. The last couple of days across the desert to Yuma they had nothing to eat but one can of baked beans and a bunch of frankfurters. It was frightful y hot but Agnes wouldn't even let them get Coca-Cola at the dustylooking drugstores in the farbetween little towns because she said they had to save every cent if they weren't going to hit Los Angeles, deadbroke. As they were wal owing along in the dust of the unfinished highway outside of Yuma, a shinylooking S. P. expresstrain passed them, big new highshouldered locomotive, pul mancars, diner, clubcar with girls and men in light suits lol ing around on the observation platform. The train passed slowly and the colored porters leaning out from the pul mans grinned and waved. Margo remem-bered her trips to Florida in a drawingroom and sighed.
"Don't worry, Margie," chanted Agnes from the back seat.
"We're almost there.""But where? Where? That's what I want to know," said Margo, with tears starting into her eyes. The car went over a bump that almost broke the springs.
"Never mind," said Tony, "when I make the ori-entations I shal be making thousands a week and we shal . travel in a private car."
In Yuma they had to stop in the hotel because the camps were al ful and that set them back plenty. They were al in, the three of them, and Margo woke up in the night
-393-in a high fever from the heat and dust and fatigue. In the morning the fever was gone, but her eyes were puffed up and red and she looked a sight. Her hair needed wash-ing and was stringy and dry as a handful of tow. The next day they were too tired to enjoy it when they went across the high fragrant mountains and came out into the San Bernardino val ey ful of wel kept fruittrees, orangegroves that stil had a few flowers on them, and coolsmel ing irrigation ditches. In San Bernardino Margo said she'd have to have her hair washed if it was the last thing she did on this earth. They stil had twentyfive dol ars that Agnes had saved out of the housekeeping money in Miami, that she hadn't said anything about. While Margo and Agnes went to a beautyparlor, they gave Tony a couple of dol ars to go around and get the car washed. That night they had a regular fiftycent dinner in a restaurant and went