The Four Winds

Elsa rides into town in search of Rafe. At the train depot, the ticket clerk admits that Rafe was there, but, with no money, he suspects Rafe did what so many others have: hopped aboard a passing train. The clerk hands Elsa a letter from Rafe; he apologizes for leaving but claims, “I’m dying here, that’s all I know” (116). He asks Elsa not to look for him. Devastated, Elsa blames herself, but she pushes the heartbreak down and steels herself for the sake of her children. She fears they will be irrevocably damaged by Rafe’s departure.

Elsa returns home. She sends the children outside and shows Rose and Tony the letter. Weighing whether to tell her children, she finally decides on the truth. Loreda flies into a rage, blaming her mother for Rafe’s disappearance. Anthony sobs in his mother’s arms. Later, Loreda consoles her little brother by telling him that their father is “probably waiting for us somewhere” (122).

As Elsa sits on a small platform beneath the windmill blades, a storm kicks up. She runs inside and bolts the door, calling to Loreda and Anthony. Anthony comes downstairs alone. When Elsa asks where Loreda is, Anthony reluctantly tells her that she ran away to find their father. Elsa jumps in Tony’s truck—with barely any gas—and drives off to find her. She drives into town and finds Loreda outside the train depot, trying to shelter from the storm. The depot is locked, so Elsa climbs through a broken window, unlocks the front door, and pulls Loreda inside. Elsa tries to explain why they can’t leave the farm, but Loreda is too angry to understand.

The next morning, during breakfast, a homeless drifter knocks at the door, begging for food in exchange for work. They offer him a bit of creamed wheat. Tony questions him about his destination and why he left home, hoping to glean some insight into his own son’s behavior. Later that morning, Anthony tells Loreda that Elsa won’t wake up. After trying unsuccessfully to rouse her, they fetch Rose, who consoles her daughter-in-law and says she must carry on for her children. Elsa sits up and weeps in Rose’s arms until she is exhausted. Rose tries to dispel Loreda’s fanciful ideas of adventure, telling her, “It will be the ruin of you” (134).

Alone with Elsa, Rose comforts her by trying to boost her self-confidence. Rafe is a fool, she says, not to love the woman Elsa has become; and Loreda, Rose argues, will settle down and finally understand that land and family are the only things she can depend on. Elsa is not so sure. She admires her daughter’s passion and wants her to follow it.

November brings snow, a hopeful sign, although the drought has left them with barely enough fuel to maintain a fire. On Sunday, they attend church. Afterward, Tony and a fellow farmer discuss heading west, but Tony claims he will never leave his land.

The winter is long and harsh. With no fuel to heat the schoolhouse, Elsa must homeschool Loreda and Anthony. She wants desperately for her children to enjoy a life better than hers, and she sees education as the only viable path to that goal. At night, she grieves deeply for her lost husband, the farm and her family the only anchors keeping her sane.

One December morning, they head into town. The community is meeting to discuss government assistance. As they pass the many deserted homes, Elsa thinks of California and of all the neighbors who have left. At the mercantile, they trade their eggs, butter, and soap for sugar, coffee, rice, and beans. At the schoolhouse, Hugh Bennett, a representative of Franklin Roosevelt’s Conservation Corps, tells the farmers they have to change their farming methods or else the majority of usable topsoil will be ruined. The government will pay the farmers not to plant crops but instead to let wild grasses grow to rejuvenate the soil. The plan doesn’t go over well, and the farmers walk out of the meeting.