SUMMARY:
The Walls move from California to the Mojave Desert in Arizona. They stop in the middle of the Desert because Mom wants to paint a Joshua Tree. The Joshua tree is ugly and has grown sideways because of the strong winds it has to put up with. Jeannette thinks it is an ugly tree, but her mother says it’s beautiful because, “It’s the Joshua Tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.”
So, they move into a shack in a town called Midland. Jeannette is afraid of the critters crawling around, so Dad makes up a game of hunting the Demon so that she is no longer afraid. They run around the house and desert in the middle of the night calling out for the Demon to approach them to get killed. Dad found a job at a gypsum mine and Mom is pregnant.
None of the kids believe in Santa Claus because Mom thinks it’s a conspiracy and that all of the toys are “Made in Japan”, not by Santa’s elves. They usually celebrated Christmas a few days later because that is when they could buy presents and wrapping paper at sales, and get a Christmas Tree from someone’s garbage. This year, Dad lost his job at the gypsum mine, so they have no money. Because they could not get presents for the kids, Dad took them outside one at a time and allowed them to choose a star. This star would be their Christmas present. Jeannette chose Venus, even though this is not a star. She likes it because it is really bright and you can see it early in the morning when all of the stars have already disappeared. That night at dinner, Dad told them everything there is to know about Astronomy and the stars.
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