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Can Man's Land
by Beth Clark

The wind blew a small pile offreshly fallen leaves in a whirlwind
about the curb, there on West Myer Street. It was the hour after
all the blue-collar laborers had returned to their run-down
homes-homes which they attempted to keep tidy and kept the
lawns mowed when they felt the energy was present. Even a few
of the wives had planted flowers here and there, but none of this
could shade the peeling paint and piles of junk that lay beside
nearly every house.

While the men settled in front of their television sets,
investments they saw worth taking and well used, their wives
scrubbed whole-heartedly at the dirtied dishes from the evening
meal. Out in the streets the children played, wearing coats their
mothers had forced upon them. These mothers, wives of construc-
tion workers and plumbers and electricians, were too busy tidying
up after their men to notice the darkness that had fallen over the
neighborhood. The night closed out day earlier for it was that
time between fall and winter when the nights became longer; and
now a fog lay thick and close to the ground. It was a favorable
night for Jimmy.

It happened by circumstance that Jimmy's father was
working in his own neighborhood at the very end of West Myer, so
Jimmy knew the site fairly well from visiting his father after
school. The lot had stood vacant a long while after Mrs. Zeller's
death, until now. After the bulldozer came, Jimmy's father's
company moved in and had begun work.

"Come on," Jimmy urged his four friends. "I said I have a
new game I wanna teach you guys down at Old Mrs. Zeller's."

The five boys moved like shadows through the thickening
fog, seen only every few minutes under the beams from the street
lights that forever searched their way through the haze. "Almost
there!" Jimmy's voice broke the silence and he continued, "I
thought up this game today in school. It's called 'Can Man's
Land'sur-"

"Ufffi" He was interrupted.

"Darn it, Andy. Watch where you're going, will ya?"
retorted Dave.

"Well, I can't see good without the street lights and the
fog's so thick I can't even see you in front of me, hardly." Andy
sounded sad and pleading.

Andy's always got some kind of sorry excuse, Dave
thought, annoyed. But back in his mind Dave knew Andy was the

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