Crunch by Rick Bundschuh Read Free Book Online Page B

of vans created a stir among the black dots digging through the trash. Suddenly a number of them—all small—streamed out of the trash piles toward the vans.
    â€œThey’re kids!” Bethany said, finally finding her voice.
    â€œI think you’re right, Dorothy,” Kai said as he stared somberly out the window.
    Some of the children appeared to be as young as five or six. Their hands and arms were black with filth, their clothes were soiled beyond imagination, and their shoes were terribly worn and dark with scum. But their eyes beamed with brightness, Bethany noticed. And they laughed and chattered as if they were getting ready to attend a birthday party.
    â€œI can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Dano said.
    The vans pulled up next to a large concrete slab, which apparently had once been the foundation of a warehouse.
    Today, Eddie informed them, it would be their bathhouse.
    Another team, who had come over for the day from San Diego, had already erected an ingenious contraption made of PVC pipes and tarps that would serve to separate the makeshift rooms for the little boys and girls.
    A team of leaders, many of them Mexicans who worked with Eddie’s ministry, were guiding the process.
    As Bethany got out of the van, she saw a collection of tiny buildings crammed together in the barren corner of the landfill. They seemed to be made of wooden pallets and roofed with blue tarp.
    Bethany grabbed Eddie’s arm as he walked by. “What are those?” she asked, pointing to the shacks.
    â€œThose are the homes of the people who live and work in the dump,” Eddie replied simply before moving on to help one of the teams.
    Sure enough, erupting from the hovels were scores of small children, running as fast as their little legs could carry them. They were followed by women and a few teens.
    The sight of immense poverty along with the nauseating smell of the dump threatened to overwhelm Bethany. For a brief moment she thought of retreating to the van. Then she reminded herself why she was there and quickly plunged into the crowd of filthy children who were as taken aback by her missing limb as she was by their grime.
    Eddie called out to them in Spanish, and soon they were forming two lines: one for boys, the other for the girls. Meanwhile, Bethany and her team struggled to finish erecting the bathhouse. Others brought in sacks of clean used clothes, towels, detergent, and five-gallon jugs of hot water.
    â€œHow did they know we were coming?” Bethany asked Eddie as he handed her a stack of towels.
    â€œI stopped by last week and told them we would be here today. They have come to trust our word.”
    â€œBut what if it rained or something? The road to this place would be impossible to travel on.”
    â€œWe would find a way,” Eddie answered with a look of grim determination. “We promised them, and with people who don’t have much hope in life, our promises mean everything.”
    Soon, tables were set up with piles of clothing. Just outside the bathhouse a station was erected for those found to be infested with lice. Plastic gloves and bottles of medicine designed to kill the creatures were laid out.
    Inside the door of the bathhouse, a table held a huge stack of towels. Each towel had a Velcro strip sown into it. Bethany overheard Eddie tell Sarah that the towels were the work of love from a wheelchair-bound woman who had once come for a day visit. The woman had been so touched by the ministry of the bathhouse, she had decided she had to help. Buying and sewing the strips of Velcro on hundreds of towels had drained her small savings—not to mention her strength—but she felt it was only right to help preserve the modesty and dignity of the children.
    Bethany couldn’t help but think that maybe someday Jesus would thank this woman for providing him with a towel.
    A small stool, a basin of water, and a bristle brush were placed at the