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same time that Ned and Jerry were returning to the stranded tractor, Jimmy was finishing up his day’s plowing in a long flat field only a mile or so from his brother’s trailer. He had only a few more chores before he could head over to Jerry’s trailer, where the men often met to plan the next day’s farming while Mary worked in her flower garden in the front yard. It was always something he looked forward to at the end of the day, a rural version of winding down.
    At around 4:00 P.M., Carl spotted a tank sitting by itself in a field about fifty feet from the road. Carl slowed the car, then eased it onto the shoulder of the road. From the passenger side, Wayne slid over so that he could keep his foot on the accelerator while Carl checked it out.
    From their places in the back seat, George and Billy watched as Carl trudged out to the tank, his short legs slogging over the still damp ground. They could see him circling the tank slowly, stopping to fiddle with it from time to time, before he shook his head and returned to the car.
    â€œIt’s gas, all right,” he told them, “but it’s diesel. We’ll have to keep looking.”
    He pulled in behind the wheel again as Wayne slid back over to his usual place, riding shotgun against the passenger door. They would have to keep looking, Carl told him, as he pressed down on the accelerator, moving the car back again onto the road, his eyes sweeping left and right, searching with increasing desperation for a place to hit.
    Some fifteen minutes later, they settled motionlessly on what everyone agreed was a perfect mark.
    At approximately four-thirty in the afternoon, Bud Alday was heading toward his house on River Road when he saw his nephew, Jimmy, pull his tractor up into the driveway of Jerry Alday’s trailer. He called to him briefly as he passed, and Jerry waved and called back before heading on up into the drive. As he continued down River Road, Bud could see other vehicles around the trailer, Jerry’s blue jeep in the driveway, and almost out of sight, parked just behind the trailer, a dark-colored car he didn’t recognize. Two miles farther down the road he glanced over his shoulder and saw two other relatives, his brother Aubrey and nephew Shuggie, at work in the fields. He waved to them broadly and continued down the road toward home.
    For a time after Bud passed, Shuggie and Aubrey continued to work in the fields. Earlier that day, they had borrowed some farm equipment from Otis Miller. With light now growing dim, they off-loaded the borrowed equipment and returned it to the Miller farm. It was a little after five, and, tired and thirsty, they decided to drop by the local grocery. They bought soda and crackers and Shuggie bought a pack of cigarettes. For a few minutes they chatted with Leonard Roberts, the owner. Then they left, telling Roberts they were off to feed their hogs.
    Later, finished with the hogs, their day’s work done, they headed back down River Road. On the way, they passed Jerry’s trailer and noticed the various Alday vehicles parked in its driveway: Jerry’s green John Deere tractor, Jimmy’s blue jeep, Mary’s blue and white Chevy Impala. It had the look of a family council. They decided to pull in.
    About twenty minutes later, Benny Alday drove past Jerry’s trailer on his way home. The driveway was crowded with vehicles, Mary’s blue and white Impala, Jerry’s jeep, Jimmy’s truck, the Alday family tractor, all of them parked in the wide open spaces around the Alday trailer. He did not see the dark green car Bud had previously glimpsed, or notice that for all the people who must have been gathered together inside the trailer at that moment, none of its interior lights had been turned on.
    By six o’clock the first blue haze of evening was beginning to settle over the coastal plain, but as long as some light remained, Mrs. Eddie Chance continued to work in her