Lost Children Archive

“Dust Valleys” returns to the mother narrator’s perspective. She explains that she feels odd the morning her children disappear, but she assumes they’re outside playing and attempts to dispel her odd feelings by reading in bed (as she taught herself to do from an early age). When her husband wakes up, however, he immediately looks for the children and realizes they are gone.

They drive around back roads in the desert looking for them. After a few hours of fruitless searching, they go to the police and give them descriptions of the children that ominously mirror the descriptions in the migrant mortality reports from Box V. They go to a nearby motel, but they can’t sleep, wondering where the boy will go once he realizes they’re lost.

The next day, the mother finds the boy’s note, which reads, “Went out, will look for lost girls, meet you later at Echo Canyon” (301). They notify the police and tell them to look in the area of Echo Canyon and drive toward Echo Canyon themselves.

This chapter returns to the boy’s perspective and blends Elegies for Lost Children with the boy’s narration. Instead of addressing his sister in this chapter, however, he addresses the mother: “We’re on our way, Mama, don’t worry.