Page 94 of Resilience on Canvas

Robert smiled. “Yep.”

Watching the waves crash, Robert felt a surge of hope swell up in his heart. Holy hell. Him and Henry had made it to California. Life had fought them every step of the way, but every single time, they had fought back harder. Life had tried to break them, but they had persisted.

Son of a bitch, they traveled over one thousand miles together, overcoming every Goddamn obstacle so far, and had somehow made it to the Promised Land.

Robert refused to give up hope for their future now.

“Hey, Hen?” Robert said, shielding his eyes from the sun.

“Yeah?”

“I want to keep fightin’ for the life we want.”

Henry tilted his head. He was smiling a lopsided smile that suggested what Robert was telling him wasn’t nothing new.

“I know.”

“We’ll find work. I know we will. Things will be rough for a while, maybe, but we’ll manage, the two of us. I still think we can take care of everybody—Clara and May and the twins.”

“I think so, too, Robert.”

Robert nodded, the certainty in Henry’s voice bringing with it another swell of hope, rising and crashing in his heart, flooding his whole body with a warm rush of contentment. Looking out over the ocean, Robert conjured up the vision of him and Henry’s future together, the one he had been picturing for weeks before they left for the coast. One with sunshine and the ocean and a home of their own and rows of beautiful fruit trees.

Robert’s eyes widened.

Fruit trees.

He turned back to Henry and said, “What if we try that little farmin’ community?”

“Do you mean the one we saw on the way to the city?”

“Yeah.”

Henry chewed on his lip, his brow furrowing like he was thinking it over.

“I think that could work. Over the next couple of weeks, we can save up ’til we can rent a little house or somethin’. I mean, they have them trucks that head out there, right? We could take one of them to the fields every mornin’ and then take one back home to wherever we’re livin’ when we finished workin’ in the fields.”

“Yeah!” Robert smacked Henry’s bicep with the back of his hand. “See, the two of us, we figured it out. Give two strong men like us a week or so, and we’ll have enough for a little place. It might take a bit longer for us to pay yer parents back for everything, but we will. Eventually.”

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too long, I wouldn’t think.”

“Nah, it won’t be.”

Robert and Henry smiled at each other.

They stood like that for a few more minutes, enjoying each other’s company and listening to the waves crash on the shoreline.

***

In the evening, once the sun had set and everyone was busy settling in for the night, Robert snuck out to sit on the stoop so that he could have some time to himself before bed. Inside, Henry wasplaying checkers with Joe in the main room while Rose and Clara were chatting in the kitchen. Thomas, Peter, and May were in their rooms, snoozing peacefully. Thankfully, supper had been much more pleasant earlier that evening, with no biting commentary from Charles Sherwood on Robert and Henry’s plan. And so, Robert was still feeling hopeful, his heart so full of optimism, it seemed as though it might burst.

Inhaling deeply, Robert looked up at the sky—somehow the same one he had seen every night in Guymon, Oklahoma, though the lights of the city were washing out some of the brilliance of the stars and making it look like a new sky entirely—and smiled wistfully as he realized how far he had come. Ever since the Davis family had lost their matriarch, Robert had been searching for a way to better their lives. Over the years, he had tried many things to secure safety and health and contentment for himself and his siblings. But nothing had ever panned out. Had Robert been a less stubborn man, perhaps he might have resigned himself to the life so many others were still living in the plains, one of hopelessness and helplessness, seeing his family wither and crumble, only to blow away with the infertile topsoil of the now-barren farmland. But he had remained steadfast, even when faced with the new struggles that had come to light in the wake of his father’s passing, and soon he would reap the rewards of his persistence. He could hardly wait.

Behind him, someone turned the doorknob, and thepopsound that followed pulled Robert out of his thoughts. He turned to see Clara and Rose coming out onto the stoop, with Clara carrying what looked to be a packet of cigarettes.

“Hi,” she said, settling beside him. Rose sat on the other side of her. Clara held out the red and white package of smokes for Robert to take. “I bought these for you today.”

Robert smiled and shook his head. “Ah, you shouldn’t have spent the money.”

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