#debukefarmhold

The roar of a truck engine can be an amazing thing. Sure, the smell of bubble gum is coming out of the exhaust, but...hey

Well, the bubble gum is also serving to temporarily tack a muffler in place as she tests...

It's working!

The engine doesn't just roar to life, once alive it purrs.

"Good girl." She wipes off some grease.

"I almost can't believe it," Clem says from the door "That thing hasn't made so much as a mutter in over a decade, and you have it running?"

"Well, I did steal at least 30% of another truck..."

"Oh steal? Nope, fair paid for, though you did give that fellow a hard bargain" She grins. "But it worked out right nice. The ah, paint job's a bit unusual"

"Ain't it sweet? Dust Devil, right here.."

"Well, as long as it works" She says

"I kicked up the horsepower..."

"And ddoesn't destroy the land it runs over" She adds

"It won't! You'll see!"

"I believe we will... let me give it a test drive then" She says

A grin, beaming with pride. "Sure!"

She drops the hood closed and wipes down some more smudges.

Clem gets the keys.

Mara clambers into the passenger side. "So, go easy on the clutch, it's touchy..."

"Oh i can.." She starts it up, test the clutch "Handle it."

The truck pulls out, "I see what you mean about the clutch, but honestly she's handling like a dream"

"Oh, well, the suspension was saggier than Great-Aunt-Petunia's tits..."

"Now that's just rude, time gets to everyone you know?" She takes it for a quick zip, even doing one donut "But she's tight and high now"

"Right? Fountain of furkin' youth..."

"So, yeah, I rebuilt that by..." Poor Clem, getting an earful of technobabble...

"Careful on your metaphors or Great Aunt Petunia's gonna want you to make her a bra" Then CLem listens to..well, she understood some words.. engine and suspension and frame.

"Oh, Jesus, Mary and all the saints, no!"

"No bras!"

A grin "I'll spread the word that there are some forms of techy 'support' you don't do"

Grumbles. "I ain't against doin' my part, but I'm not the handyman."

CLem gives the truck a few more tests, then pulls over, "Huh.I talked to a nocker, another one I mean, recently. He said that a nocker had to feel inspired, that they had to have a passion for the work... that I should find what craft you love best, let you at it, and support you."

"I don't... I don't have a "craft."

"I know, but the way you said you're not the handy man, do you feel... sounded like you resented something. What would be so bad about being the handyman if i might ask?"

"I... I don't wanna just... just poke around, doing just enough to keep things running?"

"You want to improve things... that's the key isn't it? Improving? Progressing? " The Chieftain of the Farm looks at their only nocker, "Or ..is there more than that?"

"I want to make things..." Oh, that's a note of frustration that sounds older than her nockerhood.

"Just... to try them, see if they work..."

A brow lift, "Experimentation?"

"I know, waste of (&@#&^@ time, don't *&^@& tinker, get back to work..."

"Now don't put words in my mouth" Clem says

"Ain't need to. Heard it enough plenty of times. We have a farm to run."

"I have a duty."

"Everyone has to work. That's true, but you know, you wreen't fixing everything before this dream dance were you?"

"I wasn't, nah."

"Then why would we expect you to be one now? Not like we LOSE Anything if you're not our handyman, we just don't gain in the area we expected. "

"But..." She frowns, scowls.

"But..? " She says "Look, you have to reap and sow like the rest of us. Sometimes muck the stables, and the like. You're not working any less hard than any other doing that. The rest, if it works to the family's edge, is just gravy. "

"Yes, Chief."

"So you tell me, if you were me, and had this talented new nocker who was part of the family all her life, how do you think her talents should be best used? "

"I guess just like always. In the fields or mucking stalls."

"Fixing stuff that breaks."