"Mommy, is there some more soup? I'm hungry..." little George said to his mother Theresa.
"I'm sorry sweetie, but as you can see the pot is empty." the woman replied, trying her best to not let her voice crack. It was heartbreaking to see her little boy beg for more food, but such was life in these awful years.
The Davis family had never been rich, in fact all they've ever known for generations was poverty, but there was a time where their farmwork allowed at least a modest standard of living. The last years, however, everything went down the drain: first came the drought, then the duststorm that destroyed the remaining crops and because of that buying the food had become incredibly expensive. It's as if everything that could go wrong went wrong, Theresa couldn't do much else than pray for better times.
"B-but, I had only a few bites!" George protested, followed by the cries of his sisters Betty and Liz.
The children stopped as George Senior, who had remained silent up to that point, slammed his hand on the table. He had decided to go to sleep with an empty stomach for his kids sake "I know you're hungry, but harassing your mother won't do anything to solve that... don't stress her too much please, she needs to rest as much as she can."
Theresa looked at her husband and rubbed her belly. Despite everything, there were some good news in the house: Theresa was pregnant for her 4th time, she expected a baby in a few months. Of course there were a lot of worries on how to feed this new mouth, but that wasn't the most pressing issue... her belly had grown huge, much bigger than when she was pregnant with her other children, and she was much hungrier and moody. Her biggest fear was that something was wrong with her baby, though she seemed to be healthy for now. She had no idea what the future had in store for her...
The day continued on without mercy. After the soup had been passed down, and everyone had their equal share, George Sr immediately went along with son to tend to the remaining crops. Meanwhile, the girls were left to help their mother clean up after the meal, before they inevitably would have to take stock of how much in reserves they had left for the rest of the month.
The farm, as always, was in a miserable state: only a few bushels of wheat and maize had been left in somewhat decent condition after the dust storm had passed. Nonetheless, it was still the Georges' job to tend to what was left. The sound of an old, rusty plow making its way through the rough, cobbled soil would remain a constant for the rest of the early afternoon.
Once Theresa and her daughters had finished with clearing everything up, they proceeded to head out back to begin counting what stock they had left. It wasn't much: there were still some dried food that they had been storing up just in case, but it would only last for a few months at most.
Fortunately, they still had some livestock left over even after everything that had happened. Unfortunately, it wasn't much to speak of, either, a dozen or so chickens, and some cows. That was it.
Still, the Davis's would make do with what they had. All the while, the little soul in Teresa's womb continued to grow bigger...
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