No Promises In The Wind

Josh is burning with fever when the boys arrive in Nebraska in late February. They’re penniless and must beg for food. They ask a woman for food, and she screams at them: “Do you think I can stretch the little I have to feed tramp-children and see my own starve tomorrow?” (124). However, the woman then feels guilty about turning down hungry children. She invites them back to her place, where she gives Josh and Joey, along with her six children, a bowl of thin soup.

They find a deserted shed near the railroad tracks to stay in for a while. Joey goes out begging on his own because Josh is too weak from illness. A woman gives Joey a whole loaf of bread. Joey decides to give half of it to the woman with the six children as repayment for her giving them the soup. When Joey tells Josh he gave the woman half the bread, Josh is angry with him: “Here we are starving and you give away food enough to keep us alive for days—” (126). They argue about it, and Josh hits Joey. Joey tells Josh he’s through with him and leaves the shack.

Josh immediately regrets hitting Joey, and he realizes that Joey didn’t know how sick he was. He searches for Joey, planning to apologize, but can’t find him. In his feverish state, he becomes disoriented and can’t locate the shack either. He eventually loses his balance and falls to the ground.

He wakes up in a bed in Lonnie’s home. Lonnie explains to Josh that a couple found him on the side of the road. Since Josh had Lonnie’s name and address in his wallet, they contacted him. Josh meets Lonnie’s niece, Janey, and his mother, who is Janey’s grandmother.

While Josh recovers from his illness, he and Janey get to know each other. Josh likes Janey, noting “something about her that was warm and friendly” (139). She’s more than a year younger than Josh. Janey talks about how she was close friends with Lonnie’s late son, Davey. She brings a radio into the room, and she and Josh listen to President Roosevelt’s inaugural address together. Josh doesn’t understand all of the speech, but he tells Janey that it makes him “hope a little” (137).

Josh worries about Joey as Lonnie continues to have no luck searching for him. Lonnie decides to write to Josh and Joey’s parents to see if Joey might have hitchhiked home.

Janey and Josh spend a lot of time together. Remembering a comment Josh made about earrings, Janey asks him if he knew someone pretty at the carnival who wore earrings. Josh then tells Janey about Emily. When Janey asks him if boys only love girls who are pretty, Josh responds, “You don’t need earrings, Janey. You’re sweet and nice—and you’re pretty too. I guess it’s just older women who need earrings” (144).

Lonnie receives a letter from Josh’s mother. She writes that she hasn’t heard from Joey since the boys left Baton Rouge. In the letter, Josh’s mother informs him that she’s now giving music lessons to the wife of one of Chicago’s west side gangsters. She also asks Josh to forgive his father.

While Josh, Janey, and Lonnie are listening to the radio, they hear a report about “the wild children of the road” (150). The report describes hungry children who hop freight trains, raid garbage cans, and burn anything to stay warm. The reporter then describes an incident at a dilapidated barn in Omaha where officials rescued a fourteen-year-old boy after an oak beam collapsed during a storm and pinned him. While at the barn, the rescuers also find eight other malnourished children including “a ten-year-old boy from Chicago who looked, as one newsman put it, like a half-famished angel with a shock of blond hair and an old banjo […]” (151). Based on the description, Lonnie and Josh immediately realize that the 10-year-old boy must be Joey.

Lonnie tracks down Joey and brings him back to the house. Joey is weak but glad to see Josh. Josh hides his tears as he shakes hands with Joey.