DC By the Book

Excerpt: Only one thing shook me that day. After we’d finished collecting, Tommy took me to Murder Bay, a bunch of shacks built over the nasty-smelling canal that bordered a lot near the Smithsonian. I’d walked past it, but never through it. The people living there were thick as maggots in a trash bin.

Excerpt: The office of the New Masses magazine was on 7th St. NW near the corner of G. The word Communist was nowhere visible and neither was there any sign of a hammer or sickle. From the chipped look of the storefront, Nora guessed contributions weren’t pouring in.

Excerpt: In Lafayette Park a hundred men wearing pieces of old military uniforms stood talking in small groups while kids played hide-and-seek behind statues and trees. A circle of women sat under a massive oak with roots that knuckled above ground. Hanging from the door of a car parked by the curb was a sign that read "Bonus or Bust." On the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, about forty uniformed cops stood with their backs to the White House.

Excerpt: The day was sunny and dry and not yet hot enough to melt tar, one of the fifteen or twenty perfect days we get each year in D.C. Walking south on 16th Street, I noticed what Nora was noticing -- the embassies of France and Great Britain with their hanging flags and black touring cars; the smell of flowers being sold from little carts mixing with the stink of horse s---; old women selling nickel apples from curbside wicker baskets as trolleys clanged down K Street.

Excerpt: The Smithsonian wasn’t one building but a few, on both sides of a wide, grassy field. The administrative offices were in a red building that reminded Nora of a storybook castle. On her way there, she stuck her head into the Natural History museum and saw Eskimo mukluks, an enormous stuffed elephant, and an upright Polar bear. She forced herself to leave for fear of being enthralled there for the day, and missed the opportunity to use the toilet to change into her dress.