Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas Read Free Book Online

on looking straight ahead. I wondered if she was afraid. I was, although Mr. Spano’d probably made that up. Old Tojo wouldn’t have called up Mr. Spano on the long-distance telephone and shared his plans with him.
    The government man in the front row craned his neck to see Mr. Spano, then glanced at another government man, who gave a slow nod like some kind of a signal before he took out a cigarette and fitted it into a holder.
    “I say keep the Japs locked up and let them as doesn’t have hired men do their own harvest,” Mr. Spano said, and a few men muttered agreement.
    “Not everybody’s got a son at home to help,” Dad said, and some of the men grunted to back
him
up. Besides Danny, Mr. Spano had three other boys at home, two in school and Cleatus, who was so feebleminded that the draft board didn’t want him. Only Audie, Danny’s oldest brother, was in the service. The Spanos kept two blue stars in their window, although Danny had been mustered out after the accident at Camp Carson. “If you let me hire a few of those Japanese boys, I’ll be responsible for them,” Dad said.
    “Maybe you don’t care about what one of ’em does to your wife and girl, Stroud,” Mr. Spano said slowly, then spit onto the classroom floor. Danny Spano looked at his hands then, but Beaner Jack, who was sitting next to Danny, gave a sharp laugh. If Danny hadn’t been such a jerk, I might have felt sorry for him. But Danny’d always been a jerk. It was an awful thing to be born a Spano.
    Mom grabbed Dad’s hand then and dug her nails into it. She didn’t like it when Dad spoke out, and I was hoping he would sit down, because I was afraid Danny and Beaner would give me a hard time later on. But Dad didn’t pay Mom any mind. “If I thought my womenfolk were in danger, I wouldn’t let a Japanese man or any other man on my place,” he said. “Right now, I’m worried about harvesting my beets, so I can keep a roof over my family’s head.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t let no Japs within a mile of my wife and daughters,” Mr. Spano said. I had to swallow a laugh at that, because Mrs. Spano could play catch with a bail of hay and the Spano girls didn’t live in Ellis anymore. They’d married and moved away before they finished high school. “Maybe you don’t care about your women, Stroud.”
    Dad clenched his jaw, and his hands balled up into fists. I prayed he wouldn’t start something, because I knew I’d be mortified. And Mom wouldn’t be able to face the Jolly Stitchers then, either. Before Dad could reply, however, Mr. Lee jumped in front of him, blocking his view of Mr. Spano, “Mr. Halleck, we sure do want to thank you for coming out this evening.”
    Mr. Halleck looked up, surprised but glad that Mr. Lee had given him a chance to end the meeting. He said quickly, “Glad to do it. I’ll just stay here a little longer in case any of you folks have more questions. I know it’s past bedtime, and most of you have to get up with the chickens. I’m a farm boy, too.” He laughed, but nobody else did, because we weren’t so dumb that we didn’t know when somebody was talking down to us,
    Mom stood up and shooed Dad and me in front of her. “Only a fool fights a fool,” she said, just loudly enough for the three of us to hear.
    “I’m not a fool,” Dad told her. He was stubborn and not nearly as anxious to leave as Mom.
    “I didn’t say you were, Loyal. But you would be if you mixed it up with John Spano.”
    “Come on, Dad,” I said, grabbing at his hand, which had about as much effect as talking to a chicken.
    A few men came up and spoke to Dad, but more gathered around Mr. Spano to shake his hand and clap him on the back. The room seemed hostile then, and I didn’t know how people who had been our friends all of our lives could suddenly be against us, glaring at Dad—and at Mom, too, although she hadn’t said anything. I hadn’t, either, but people still looked me up and down, which made me think