The sky over North Carolina was showing red the night Sam and Terry decided to leave for the South. The red clouds travelled to Smithfield from the western hills, the high Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smokies. Sam Parham is 27 years old and weighs 260 pounds. For an hour or so, right into the dark, he pulled on the starting string of an electric generator he'd borrowed from his father, until the top of his T-shirt was soaked with sweat. 'Goddamn bitch,' he said. 'This muthafucker is brand new. I want the goddamn thing to work. We're sure gonna need its ass when we get to New Orleans.'

LRB 6 October 2005 | PDF Download