Like many of the stories in Winds of Change this story will have an impact on the future...

  Trailer Trash

Sibiu

Giaro had an air of innocence about him that he thought was good;however, it apparently wasn’t good enough. He and Jonas had been scouting thegeneral store under the guise of playing when the shopkeeper saw them andchased them off.

The Django kids slunk away annoyed at being turfed out. They roundedthe corner and ran right into the arms of the Gardia. Giaro found his left armgrabbed roughly, hard enough to bruise. He cried out, but more in theater thanin anything else.

“What did you steal this time?” the Gardia demanded as his partnergrabbed Jonas by the scruff and shook him.

“Nothing! We were just playing!” the boys insisted as they were forcedto turn out their pockets. The pockets had some paper trash, some minorcredits, some washers, and a set of jacks and dice but little else.

The lead Gardia glowered at them. The duo took on an air of sullen andquiet denial. They knew that they were in the right … this time.

“We don’t want your thieving kind around here anymore,” the Gardiastated with a growl. “If we see any of you tinkers in town, we’ll take the caneto you. Mark my words!” he snarled as he roughly pushed the kid to the road. “Nowgit!”

The kid shot back a dirty look but brushed himself off as Jonas waspushed to him. He caught his little brother and then moved on. The girls joinedthem further up the dirt road as they made their way back to camp. They werequiet and annoyed.

It was a long walk back to the camp, over six kilometers up and downsome hills and across a covered bridge. The kids tried to find something tobring back but only found water crest, a turtle, and a frog to bring back. Theyknew their mother would be annoyed.

--*--

Mario Lupu made the rounds to the Hammerstein farmstead, hat in hand inhopes of finding more work. He was denied. Instead, he found himself meetingwith the town fathers. The leader of the Gardia came up behind him, blocking aquick escape.

He knew the score but stood his ground. “It is time for you travelingfolk to move on,” Mister Hammerstein stated coldly.

“I thought we still had business. You have another harvest coming up,”the Neocoyote whined.

Another town father shook his head. “We don’t want your kind here. Youhave been stealing. Thefts are up across the county. Leave. If you do not leavein two days, we will have the Gardia turn you out.”

“We will leave. See who you call when you need your fruits picked inthe late fall,” the Neocoyote said as he put his cap back on his head. Heturned and walked off without a backwards glance.

--*--

The camp was broken into three parts. The first part was the one facingthe dirt road; it was the carnival of delights and oddities. Gepetto's puppetstage was there along with the acrobat ring, petting zoo, oddity show, maker’srow, and so on.

Behind them the kids passed through the vehicle park. Off to one sidewas an improvised pasture; it held the beasts of the traveler folk. The pasturehad to be moved every few days because the beasts tended to eat up all of thegrass.

Giaro checked the water with a keen eye and then waved for his littlebrother to get a pale and refresh it. Jonas grimaced but didn’t argue. Eachwagon had three water cans to provide water if the plumbing wasn't set up. Manyhad brass plaques with the family name or crest engraved on it. It was thechores of the kids to fill and carry it from the water source to the wagon.

The most advanced wagons had a pump, filtration system, and hoses thatcould feed their neighbors.

Charity was there weaving on the family wagon, she nodded to them.“Didn’t get anywhere did you?” she asked mildly as he presented her with thecat tails and the little that they’d found along the road back. The path was wellpicked over from their frequent trips.

“No,” he said in disgust. “We got turfed out by the Gardia,” hegrumbled.

“Figures,” she sighed.

“Think we’ll have to move?” he asked.

“Probably,” she said as her nimble fingers finished weaving the basket.She turned a critical eye on it, examining it carefully before she took out apair of side cutters and nipped the final errant pieces of cane away. Thosewere gathered up to be tossed in the fire later.

“Best I check the wagon and the truck then,” Giaro said, trying tosound gruff and an adult.

“Best you do,” his older sister said. He stepped past her but couldn’tresist tweaking a braid along the way. She swung at him and caught him on theback of the thigh with a well placed swat. He snorted and kept going.

--*--

Mahler Ward finished his rounds with the local healer. There had beenlittle work recently, a clear sign that it was time to move on. It wasunfortunate; he rather liked the community.

The traveler folk made rounds all over the continent, frequently changingtheir route each year to keep things from getting stale. As long as the handsdidn’t get too sticky fingered, they would be able to return to an area to dowork in a year or so once the annoyance and anger over their antics faded intomemory.

Sibiu was a terraformed agrarian world named for a Romanian city onlong-lost old Earth. The colony had initially been settled by East Europeansand Irish who had paid for the terraforming project. It had been opened up toall species once they’d been established with the best lands and mineralrights.

The world was cold even during the height of summer, not many speciesliked the world. Only a handful of refugee ships had come to the star systemduring the Xeno war. Most of those had found themselves unwelcome and had movedon.

“Do you need anything from the pharmacists?” Mahler asked mildly. Thehealer shook his head firmly.

“I’m all stocked up. If I get anything else, it will just spoil beforeI need it.”

Mahler nodded. Efren had a point.

“Tell Z’ch’ll thanks for fixing the scope and the surgical tools. Ithink I can handle it from here,” the healer said dismissively.

Mahler nodded quietly as he saw the signs of dismissal. There waslittle work in the area for one healer now that they’d gotten past the rash ofaccidents that generally cropped up during spring and fall. If he stuck aroundlonger, there wouldn’t be enough pay to support both families.

So, Efren was politely telling him it was time to move on.

“Well,” he said as he slapped his cap on. “Be seeing you around,” hesaid gruffly.

“Be seeing you, Doctor,” Efren replied with a nod.

That was another sign of dismissal. They were supposed to be equals;however, Efren had called him by the title. Mahler nodded and kept an impassiveface as he took his bag and headed out to the street. He looked around and thenheaded to his bike. He strapped his kit bag on the back and then took off onthe bicycle up the road, doing his best to avoid the ruts as he headed back tocamp.

--*--