She looked up as a tall, lean man dressed in the same kind of mismatched clothes she had noted on all the other citizens of Auburn. The only unusual feature was a pair of newly shined boots with brightly polished buckles at the top that jangled with every step he took.
"Clarisse, there you are I've been looking for you all over," the man said and the girl jumped from her seat and moved toward him. "Who is this you're talking to?"
"This is Jessie, Papa. She's a peddler!" the girl said as the man draped his arm over her shoulder. "She's fixing the water purifiers and she asked about the church burning."
"Did she now?" He turned to face her.
Jessica13 could only assume the girl’s conscience had reacted to being virtually caught in the act made her instinctively blab about what she’d insisted had to be kept secret.
"I saw the burning." She kept her head low and forced herself not to jerk or shake as she collected her tools. "I asked her about it. She said she wasn’t supposed to talk about it and made me promise not to say anything."
"Well, she knows nothing can be told in Auburn without me knowing about it," the man said with a chuckle. "It’s good that you told me, Clarisse. If you’re always honest, you'll avoid being in the next burning building, you know?"
The horrifyingly calm way in which he said something so terrible triggered a shiver of fear, but Jessica13 nodded. Instinct told her she needed to distract the man from the current topic of conversation and somehow ease any suspicion he might feel. "I move around and folks want stories when I travel to their locations, so when I have one to share, they like to hear it. I've found they tend to give me food and drink while I give them good stories, so I’ve learned to listen for the good ones. A burning building tends to be a good story to share. Like I heard out west that a couple of bunkers were burned by pirates that were getting their weapons and parts from a scrapyard from a nearby City-That-Was."
"No shit?"
She nodded. "They were burned right the hell out. They took all the resources they could from inside, killed the folks they found, and those who weren't killed died in the toxic smoke from what they used to burn it. They did a thorough job too, I heard, and didn’t want anyone to pick up what they left behind."
The man nodded. "Well, that is why we have Lady Hoot looking over us. Folks around here think the only reason why they give to her is because of the rain and water she gives them. And while that is true, they have forgotten the real reason why they want to make sure she remains with them. Folks outside of Lady Hoot's protection have to face pirates like the ones who burned that bunker out. The people here have lived for so long under the umbrella of our lady's protection that they forget the dangers she protects them from. The church was burned with those who would have invited risk into our lives and brought outsiders to endanger the peace Lady Hoot has bequeathed us. That burning was a lesson, a reminder to the people of Auburn of what they risk when they anger Lady Hoot. She might not come back to help us."
The man had the same kind of voice and intonation that Jessica13 recalled Hammerhand using, a kind of hypnotic monotone that made her want to believe everything he said. She could almost understand why Clarisse wasn't more upset about people dying in the church on the hill.
"Well, I'll tell you something, that story will earn me quite a few meals out in the Wild," Jessica13 said with a chuckle.
"You're a good mechanic, yes?" the man asked.
"I dabble," she admitted.
"Jessie, I think the others said your name was," he continued like she hadn't even spoken. "People with skills like yours are often unappreciated, bartered for, and reduced to the point where you have to tell stories to fill your belly. But someone who works as you do…" He paused and moved to where she had worked to clean the purifier and smiled. "Someone with your skills need not beg for work wherever she goes. You could have a home here. Work all day but come home to a warm home, a bed, and as much food and supplies as you need. Have you considered that?"
She wasn't sure what he was getting at but she wondered if there wasn't trouble involved along the way. "I've thought about it, yes," she replied and tilted her head as if she reconsidered it. "But I do enjoy exploring the Wild. It’s a chance to get to know the world and maybe share the stories of the world with the people in it, which makes me feel connected."
"Well, if you ever tire of wandering, know that a place like Auburn could be quite welcoming to someone with specialized talents like yours," he said. "We have a couple of locals who collect vids and manus of how to make things run, but you have a skill for it, I can tell. Experience and learning are hard to come by, even if you can read what can be read in those fucking manus. Folks underestimate how good it is to have everything working as it should instead of having to work and replace what breaks with what might not be such a good replacement if you know what I'm saying."
Jessica13 nodded. "Well, I'll think about it. I've wandered a while and I've let the word spread that I'll be here to fix what's broken for as long as I'm welcome here."
"As long as you fix what's broken, you'll be welcome," he said
