Ch.1

      The winds of the Mojave can be brutal. Fine sand blasts paint from cars, seeps into house, clogs up exhaust systems. The heat index is above 100 degrees from early May through October.

      Rain so scarce, those who know the Mojave can smell it coming before they see the clouds or hear the thunder.

      All that moves on the desert floor during the day are horned toads and blow flies that prey on any type of flesh that can be found. Sidewinders, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs all bed up under rocks for shade until darkness comes to the desert.

      So why would humans choose to live in such harsh surroundings? The reasons vary, some have been for generations, People of Mother Earth.

      Others moved as prospectors, rock hounds or following the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa fe Railroads, making their homes around the rail yards.

      Their skin now as dark and weathered, as those roots have been here forever. Proven by petroglyphs, on the rock walls, high above the desert floor. Verified by stories of the ancients passed from generation to generations by the grandmothers and storytellers.

      When darkness comes to the vast basin, the stars seem close enough to touch. Moonlight and dunes seem sur-real. Night blooming cacti along with the smell of cooling boulders erase the smell of auto fumes and melting asphalt on route 66. Shooting stars add to the euphoric sense one feels watching nightfall on the Mojave.

      The average dwelling for those on the Mojave is constructed of adobe or native stone, more than likely only a blanket or serape for a front door. An underground river runs from the base of the San Bernardino Mountains towards the mighty Colorado River to the east, and to the Soda Lake outside Baker, California. A few scattered farms dot the harsh landscape, windmills pumping the hard water to the surface, watering a few cows or a field of hay.

CH.2

      The years of WW2 have brought many Gi's to the bases on the desert, the housing they are bulleted in called Quonset huts, like blimps in the sand.

      Route 66 stays busy with civilians coming to California seeking work in the defense industry. One of the U.S. Army recruits now stationed at Camp Irwin, California is Wade Stone, A Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah. He has met and made a girlfriend of a Serrano Paiute girl. He doesn't know how young she is.

      Her tribal name is Birdsong, called bird by her family and friends. He is currently AWOL for the Desert Tank Training Camp on the Mojave.

      The young couple hide out in an abandoned house, she from her family with enough mouths to feed already, and the shame of her being in trouble by a GI. He from the MP's that would place him in the stockade and give him a possible dishonorable discharge as well as time in a Federal Pen.

      This is the only solution they see for the situation they find themselves facing.

CH.3

      Wade picks up what day work he can find, leaving Bird alone in the hot dwelling from dawn until after dark. He has to walk to the Highway, hitch a ride to the Whiting Brothers filling station each morning to find any work that will give them some cash.

      He takes a canvas motor bag to put water in, all they have to drink or wash up with. Bird knows at 15 years old, she will deliver in this harsh surrounding. She is not sure when.

      She hasn't been seen by a doctor. The public health doctor that visited the reservation outside of Needles, where she is from, would have told her parents, in turn they would have sent her away to an Indian school far from her friends and Wade.

      She would rather be here, on their own than humiliate her family. She feels the burning love of youth towards her young lover. Soon to be father of her child.

      The coyotes have sung all night, the couple has not slept well. Birds back hurt the entire night. She has cramped off and on. She supposes the cramps are from the canned chili Wade brought back for them to eat the night before.

      At dawn he sits up on the mattress on the floor they sleep on, announcing, No tarantulas or lizards last night he laughs. He reminds her that he has found a three day job helping a bridge crew up toward the Mono Reservation to the north.

      She will be alone for three days, he expects her to be careful and watch the water, using it only for drinking. She feels so awful she doesnt say anything except for him to be careful and hurry back.

      As he leaves, he takes his watch off and tells her to wind the damn thing every evening. He looks over his shoulder as he heads off towards the highway, and says Do not even go scrounging for dry tumble weeds for fire. Stay in."

      He is just out of eyesight when her cramping starts again. She grabs the broom and starts her daily chore of sweeping the hard floor. When she finishes, she will read the magazines Wade has retrieved from the trash barrel at the filling station. She will be fine. Just fine.