The Times We Live In #1

Leo Nordine turned the front-door key and cat-footed into one of his three hundred homes, a four-bedroom in South Gate. "Hello, Leo Nordine!" he announced himself. He walked into a living room stuffed with boxes and saw three girls huddled under a blanket, watching the Disney Channel. "Why aren't you in school?" he asked, smiling.

The oldest, Valerie, said, "Our mom said because we have to move, to stay home and not tell anyone."

"Is your mom around?"

So begins the article "Letter from California," by Tad Friend in the New Yorker magazine, April 6, 2009.