Someone to watch over me

structures, not even allowed to gather their belongings. Men, women, and children were coughing from the smoke, vomiting, and squinting, their red eyes streaming in the gas-laden air.
    Jack was disoriented and couldn’t find the Towertons’ tent. He wrapped his handkerchief around his nose and mouth and kept searching.
    He ran into George Newman, the former teacher he’d spoken to earlier. He hardly recognized the man at first with all the soot on his face. “Who’s doing this?“ Jack demanded.
    “President Hoover has sent his dogs of war,“ George said, with a disgusted sneer. “General MacArthur and his aide, Major Eisenhower, are in charge. And that son of a bitch Patton’s around somewhere with his cavalry, running down as many people as he can reach.“
    “I’m lost,“ Jack admitted. “I need my suitcase. My notes are in it. Is Joe’s tent still standing?”
    “Last time I saw, it was. Over there.”
    Jack went the way George had pointed and found the tent in flames. He had to get his notes. Taking a deep breath and holding his arms over his head, he ran inside, grabbed his case and tore back out. When he was safely out of the tent, he put the case between his feet and started slapping his hair and clothes where sparks were burning.
    As he did so, a child across the way headed for a tar-paper shack that soldiers were also approaching. “Mister,“ the boy said to one of the soldiers, “I gotta get my pet rabbit, please.”
    The soldier said, “Get the hell outa here, you little bastard,“ and prodded the child’s leg with his bayonet.
    A man appeared, shoving through the horrified crowd, and scooped the child up, holding one hand over the little scrawny leg, which was bleeding copiously.
    “Johnny, we’ll get you another rabbit,“ he said, running, coughing, and trying to stuff the little boy’s face into his shirt to protect him from the smoke.

    The first anyone at home knew about this was when Lily turned on the radio late that evening. It had been so hot in her room that even Agatha couldn’t sleep. Lily and the dog crept downstairs, opened the library windows, and turned on a fan to catch whatever breeze might blow up from the river. Sitting in the dark, Lily thought some soothing music might help her go to sleep. She switched on the massive radio and started turning the dial for music but caught a semi-hysterical voice. “...in Washington and on the Anacostia Flats. Fires leap so high and fiercely that the White House itself is bathed in orange light....”
    Lily jumped to her feet, ran upstairs, and pounded on Robert’s bedroom door.
    “What’s wrong!“ he said, his hair tousled and sweaty and his eyes bleary.
    “Come down and listen to the radio. There are apparently huge fires burning somewhere near Washington.”
    Robert threw on a dressing gown and raced downstairs.
    “...and (cough) there’s so much tear gas in the (cough) air, I’m going to have to close down this connection.”
    The radio was alarmingly quiet for a few moments, and then an announcer came on. “We hope our reporter can get back to us soon. As you heard him say, the U.S. Army attacked the Bonus Marchers in Washington this afternoon. They evicted those occupying abandoned government buildings at gun- and saber-point and with tear gas. Tanks moved down and crossed the Eleventh Street Bridge, pushing the crowd of marchers and local people before them. The camp on the Anacostia Flats is now in flames. So far we have no news of fatalities. We’ll interrupt this program if new information comes to us from Washington.”
    The soothing music Lily had sought earlier commenced.
    “Dear God!“ Lily said. “Jack’s there somewhere.”
    Robert was leaning forward, elbows on knees. “Sometimes the newspeople get things wrong. But this sounded real. How on earth could Hoover do this to American citizens? The heroes of the Great War?”

Chapter 16

    Robert went to Poughkeepsie early in the morning to get all the New York City papers the moment they were delivered and brought them back. Editorials screamed.
    “What a pitiful spectacle, the great American Government chasing unarmed men, women, and children with army tanks.“
    “If the United States Army must be called out to make war on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America.”
    The Hoover administration saw to it that the few newspapers still favorable to him editorialized that the Bonus Army was composed of criminals and Communists who had taken