“We all did it,” she said. “Me, Lindy Duvall, Carrie’s mom. Others I could name. Our mothers did it, too. Even some of our grandmothers when they were kids. And it wasn’t just us. I met girls from other reservations. None of us had money. Nobody would give us jobs. We didn’t have casinos back then. Working the boats down in Duluth, we made enough that we could send money home. For a lot of girls, what those sailors did wasn’t any worse than what had already been done to us by other men, even some in our families. And the sailors, they paid us for it.” “Did Mariah know this?” Rainy asked. Louise shook her head. “I never told nobody till now. It was shameful stuff. And I wanted it to be different for my girl.” “Will you tell us how it happened for you, Louise?” Cork said. The day was hot, but a breeze came off the lake, blew in through the windows of Meloux’s small cabin, and exited through the open door.
