West with Giraffes

Driving through Oklahoma reminds Woodrow of the Dust Bowl. In April of 1935, a black cloud “blew three hundred million tons of topsoil off Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. When it hit, it blackened the skies so bad that your hand in front of your face went unseen, the static in the air so bad that the slightest touch of anyone or anything turned sparks into black magic flames. And it kept blowing” (242). Almost immediately upon entering Oklahoma, strong winds push against the rig. The men Woodrow meets at service stations warn him that worse weather will hit them soon.

At one of his stops, Woodrow sees Red, who steals an apple. The rain starts, and a group of religious singers praise the rain. When the singers see the giraffes, they celebrate the animals as a good omen. The dust makes Woodrow and Riley cough. Woodrow applies Vaseline to the giraffes’ nostrils to keep some dust out—an old trick he learned from his mother.

The land becomes more desolate as they drive on, but Riley and Woodrow are stunned when an enormous flock of birds flies alongside their rig. Woodrow wonders where they’re all going together, and why.