"Let them use the toilets," Majestyk said to the attendant. "All right?"
The attendant held on another moment, as if thinking it over, letting them know he was not being forced into anything but was making up his own mind. He shrugged indifferently then and nodded to two keys that were attached to flat pieces of wood and hung from the wall next to the door.
"Keys're right there," the attendant said. "Just don't take all day."
2
The girl rode with him in the pickup and the four men followed in the Ford sedan that needed a paint job and a muffler, heading east on the highway toward the morning sun, seeing the flat view of sand and scrub giving way to sweeps of green fields on both sides of the highway, citrus and vegetable farms, irrigation canals and, in the near distance, stands of trees that bordered the fields and marked back roads and dry washes. Beyond the trees, in the far distance, a haze of mountains stood low against the sky, forming a horizon that was fifty miles away, in another world.
The girl was at ease, though every once in a while she would turn and look through the back window to make sure the car was still following.
Finally Majestyk said, "I'm not going to lose them."
"I'm not worried about that," the girl said. "It's the car. It could quit on them any time, blow a tire or something."
"They relatives of yours?"
"Friends. We worked the same place at Yuma."
"How long you been traveling together?"
The girl looked at him. "What are you trying to find out? If I sleep with them?"
"I'm sorry. I was just curious, I didn't mean to offend you."
When she spoke again her tone was quiet, the hostility gone. "We go to different places, help organize the farm workers. But we have to stop and work to pay our way."
"You're with the union?"