Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman

their road vanished into the evening.
    Cassie stopped the car. There was a railroad crossing. Patches of dirt showed that others had crossed the tracks in front of the tunnel, heading up into the hills.
    â€œWhere are we?” said Judith.
    On the map, the print closer to the edges was easier to see, but no matter how Cassie studied it, she was more and more certain that they had driven off the eastern edge of the map some time ago. She showed Judith. “We’ll need a new map.”
    â€œWhere we gonna find a new map?” said Judith.
    â€œI guess at a gas station.”
    â€œYou reckon we should stop fer the night?”
    â€œI reckon we should.”
    They got the car off the road and under some pine trees. Judith opened the trunk, found a box of matches, and struck one. The light showed what else was in the trunk: the sack of cornmeal and the hunk of ham lying unwrapped in the cast-iron skillet.
    â€œI got aigs in here.” Judith shook out the match, lit another, and poked around in the musty space. She pulled out a chipped bowl with an apron stuffed into it. The eggs, wrapped in the apron, were miraculously intact. Judith shook out the second match and pushed the eggs at Cassie. “Go on an’ mix us up some corn bread. I’ll start the fire.”
    Cassie sat on the running board and mixed cornmeal batter with her fingers, since there was no fork or spoon in the trunk. The bread would be flat and tough. Lil Ma would have added warm milk and yeast; the bread would have risen into something respectable instead of burning black in the pan. On her knees, Judith blew on a tiny flicker between dry pine twigs.
    The fire caught and flames rose up. They showed Judith’s uneven teeth in a grin. “There y’are.” She brushed her hands on her knees. Cassie scooped the batter into the skillet and squatted by the fire with the pan.
    Judith put in a few more sticks. The flames jumped and crackled. “We should slice up that ham and put it in too.”
    â€œDid you bring a knife?”
    â€œDin’t you?”
    â€œDidn’t really think I’d be leavin’.”
    â€œI thought ’bout leavin’ alla time after that albino boy, Jack, started talkin’. Started thinkin’ ’bout, you know, marriage an’ travelin’ an’ New York.” Judith put in some bigger sticks. Behind her, the dark shoulders of the hills showed as an ebony edge against a sky slowly filling with stars. The fire gained some heat, and the warmth made Cassie feel achy from hours of sitting in the car.
    â€œWhich way you want to go tomorrow?” Judith pointed left with a stick, following the road. “I don’t think this ol’ thing’ll ever get up that hill.”
    â€œThen I guess we should take the road.” Cassie hadn’t eaten since last night and felt lightheaded enough to ask the question that had been on her mind since she’d seen Judith drinking and horsing around with the albino boy and the Justice boys.
    â€œYou gonna have a baby?”
    Judith pushed a burning stick around. “I don’t know.” She took the skillet and set it into the fire. In a minute, the batter began to hiss, already burning at the edges.
    â€œWhat’re you gonna do if you have a baby?” said Cassie.
    â€œI dunno. Plenty of them singin’ stars got babies.”
    â€œI guess.”
    After they ate and scrubbed out the pan with sand, Judith tucked herself into the frayed ruins of the backseat. She dug the enormous pistol out from under the driver’s seat and laid it by her head. “I’m gonna use it fer a piller,” she said.
    Cassie used her shoes, the way Lil Ma had told her to. The shoes were hard. She rolled onto her back, pushing them to one side. From where she was lying in the front seat, she could see the stars through the windshield and the same sliver of moon she had run away from home under last night. What