When Ma and Anna had gone looking for work, no one had wanted to hire them, even though they weren’t the ultimate untouchables—out-of-towners. In Ma’s case they claimed she was under-qualified; in Anna’s that she was overqualified. Job Service wouldn’t touch them. Employers round-filed their applications. Scavenging took them through the first lean year—that and finding money on the streets, in the runner rims of the washing machines in the Super Suds Launderette, and in the many phone booths around town. They blew what money they held in reserve on bills, until the home cleaning service out in the hoity-toity Willow Hill section of town decided that they’d take a chance on the Sudeks, and offered them office cleaning jobs. (The service also handled in-home care for the elderly, but they
