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Show 21 112 AND RISING The baby pumped at Esther's breast, f l a i l i n g its arms, fretting. Perspiration pooled between his cheek and her wrinkled breast. " I can't breathe," she said out loud. Fire white sun f i l l e d every edge of the sky. Heat smothered the pores of her body and pressed the cotton dress to her skin even though she sat near a wet sheet, hung over a beam to cool the air. "I can't stand i t anymore." Esther jerked the baby from her nipple and pressed him and his bawling f l a t l y into the cradle. "Shut up, baby. Shut up. Oh God, I'm so hot." She grabbed a pie t in for a fan. "I'm gonna die." Sun poured onto the draped canvas and the 2 X 4 nailed frame that she and Alf had pieced together to protect their family from the desert. Esther dipped into the water bucket with the long-handled scoop, knowing she should have insisted on staying in the last town where f r u i t trees and water ran in open ditches. But Alf always had big ideas about the next job and the next move. The baby gasped for breath in between his lamb-like cries. Esther stared at the red anger in his tight f i s t s , walked to the makeshift window, and peered out at the tent settlement. No one was in sight. No |