Shane gazed up at the blazing sun. He hoped California, which he had heard was a veritable paradise, would be as cool as his home back in Ireland. By the end of September he and his wife along with their six year old son Conor should be arriving. Leora was pregnant with their second child. There would be a new member of the family by then. "It will be here soon," she would say, smiling her shy smile. Shane and his wife would often lie in their wagon at night, his hand stroking her swollen belly and feeling the movement of their child as it kicked and struggled with her body. They would laugh and cry, thinking ahead of the new life they would soon share and the new life they shared in creating. Shane smiled to himself at the thought.