#debukefarmhold

"She's a WHAT Now?" A voice echoes across the DeBukefarm, a confused brother

and later "A car????"

Bix is sure his sister is getting everything handed to her on a carhood right now.

Mara isn't so sure. The first day or two went smoothly, but folks seem to be of two extreme minds...either treat her like a troll blood with the same old chores she and everyone else does, or have her fix whatever THEY think is a priority. At least they let her work on the truck, but damn it, some of them even fuss when she cusses. And that feels STIFFLING. Don't they realize how much she needs that?

"FURK!" she shouts, alone in the old barn that is currently serving as a garage.

It feels good to let it out, even if it does send some pigeons flying.

"What are you complaining about?" Bix says peeking in, and amazed "Wow. It's still hard to believe "

"Let me swear in peace, Bix. I kept having Pearletta tut language at me all morning."

"I swear, if she had pearls she'd be clutching them. Little old biddy in a teenaged body." She wipes her hands on a rag, then wipes sweat from her forehead... managing to leave a black streak.

"She does that to everyone" He grunts, "I don't give much of a high holler if you swear or not. I want to know how come you got a shot at a car on the farm's dime when I don't and I've been hammering away at that lump of truck for a year on and off and no one ever promised me so much as a hamburger. I swear, girls have it so easy around here."

"Clem said I could have one because I finally fixed Old Nutty."

Begrudging "Yeah, Nutty's actually running pretty good... tarted up a bit, but small price. Still, I fixed old nutty lots of times too."

"You patched her, but didn't fix her. C'mon, did you see her? She's better than anything. Bet I could win the Harcumb Grange pull with her."

"How you think something named 'nutty' is a her... " he says wryly, then he ponders "The pull? Nutty would be disqualified... well..maybe" Not sure

"Good vehicles are girls. Crappy ones are guys."

"So, whatever, Nutty is a she now."

"Oh wow" He rolls his eyes, then he moves to the truck "Wait, what are you doing to the transmission? It looks like voodoo with gears"

She bristles. "And she would win."

"Just you wait. I'll show you."

"Talk is cheap" He says "Look, you got nutty working again. That's something. Now..what the by devil water is going under this hood?"

"Oooo..." A sound of suppressed wrath, not excitement.

"And this? This is simple, I'm using clockwork to ensure even timing on the pistons..."

"CLOCK work? Since when do you know about clockwork?" Baffled, he pokes at a sprocket lightly

"There was the time I took apart the big one in the hallway, remember?"

"Oh yeah..." he thinks back "Weren't you grounded for a week for messing with a genuine grandfather clock?"

"...Yeah."

"And then I got in trouble for taking apart Dad's lawnmower, too, remember?"

"Yeah after I worked on it... always following me ..." a frown "mmmph" He trolls up quiet for a moment

Then "maybe you would have come out sooner if we hadn't been blocking so often" almost a whisper

She shrugs. "I mean, nobody expected me to pop."

"Not this old."

"Nope." he agrees.

"And maybe DeBukes aren't supposed to be nockers."

"Sorta... getting that.."

"What?" Suddenly his demeanor changes "Who said that?"

"Nobody! Just... you know?"

"Well if Reg mouths off something like that you let me know, Ain't a god damn thing wrong with you, if this is who the Dreaming says you are, it's who you are, and no less a DeBuke for that. It'll take us time to get use to it, but 'shouldn't? fuck that"

She shrugs and scuffs and mumbles under her breath.

"I ain't a weirdo like Earl. I just want to make stuff. It's like... I got all these ideas exploding in my head, and I can't keep up with them..."

A sigh then "how can I help? I mean, you want some one to assist these..crazy ideas? I got training and clases and such but other times when I'm not on chores"

"They're not crazy! Everybody is acting like wanting to try something new is crazy!"

"It's not like I'm some outsider coming in. This is my home, too. I've seen how we do stuff."

"Well, we got new.. remember? Clem told folks about us. We got allies now. Heck, some of us , not many, decided to stay unseelie and not so much a stigma. Lots of change. Some folks worry too much" Bix shrugs

"It seems like all they want is either some pet handyman, or they think like nothing has changed..."

Bix ponders, then "Okay. What do you want to change, specific like?"

"I don't... I want to try stuff! Make things! Not just fix dishwashers!"

"I don't have just one thing I want to do. Why do I need to pick just one thing? It's not even been a week yet..."

"Are you cursing in there agaaain?" Pearletta's voice can be heard from the other side of the door "Some folks sure do seem to have trouble with basic manners.."

"She's not cursing, Pearletta, I am. Now fuck off fore I tell CLem how you eavesdrop!"

That from Bix, of course.