Grantville Gazette, Volume 40 (8 page)

"Yeah, it's a sewing project I'd just started in '97. I was working on it both to cheer up your father, and because money was tight that year."

"Hold on, how was sewing clothes supposed to cheer Dad up?" Meanwhile, Seth was taking things out of the footlocker and looking at them.

"He was working at the Dollar Store and we were paying the bills only with the money I was bringing in. Then he was saying, 'I'm not a man anymore, I can't provide for my family.' And the sewing was my way of saying, 'You're my husband, and you're man enough for me to do wifey things for you.'
 
"

"The Dollar Store, I never understood that. Why was Dad working there when he moved out? What happened to his job at Barlow Subaru?"

"That's a long story, darlin'."

Seth held up a piece of thin brown pattern-paper. It had been cut into a strip only two inches wide. "Um, Mom, I don't know much about sewing, but this isn't supposed to be like this."

"That's for either your father's denim jacket or his denim pants. At the time, I was mad at him."

"Why? What did he do?"

Stephanie sighed. "That's another long story. In the meantime, help me carry this downstairs."

****

Minutes later, Stephanie and Seth were drinking G-rated apple cider in the kitchen.

Seth asked, "So Mom, why'd you cut up all of Dad's patterns? And stop work on his project?"

"Darlin', don't you have homework to work on?"

"C'mon, Mom, give me something. You don't usually get pissed at stuff." Seth smiled and added, "Even when Aaron deserves it."

She raised an eyebrow. "While you are a perfect angel?"

"Will you spill it, yes or no? No smokescreen."

"Fine. I bought the denim, I bought the patterns, and started with Aaron's jacket, since that was small and simple."

"The good part, Mom, the good part."

"Elaine Onofrio told me I'd done something wrong, and I'd need to do Aaron's jacket over. Before I could remember to buy more denim in Fairmont, your father did something really, really stupid. Which is when I threw him out and filed for divorce. Of course, I quit working on the sewing project then."

"What did Dad do stupid?"

"Nuh-uh, I'm pleading Mom Privilege. But looking back from years later, I see that your father was never himself after Barlow fired him."

Seth's eyes went wide. "Jay Barlow fired Dad? I thought Dad quit Barlow Subaru."

"No, Seth. Larry was definitely fired."

"Poor Dad," Seth said. "That is so sucky, you know? This explains a lot about Dad in his last months with us."

Stephanie looked at her son like he were a flying monkey. How does Larry getting fired by Barlow justify him at the swimming hole with that teenybopper Goth whore Geri Kinney?

****

"We're rich!" Aaron said at dinner. "Or, we're gonna be rich, Mom, after you sell all that denim."

"Maybe we're rich, darlin'," Stephanie said. "I haven't figured out who to sell it to, or where to sell it."

Seth grinned. "That should be 'whom to sell it to,' Mom. Miss MacDougal says so."

Stephanie stuck out her tongue at her smart-aleck son, then said, "I don't know what to do, and I don't think there's anyone who can advise me. One thing's for sure, I don't want to blow this."

"I know what to do," said Aaron. "Send a telegram to Princess Kristina. She'd pay top dollar for all of it."

"That's an idea," Stephanie replied. "But she probably has lots of fancy clothes already. Shouldn't somebody else get a shot?"

"I ask just one thing, Mom," Seth said. "Don't sell it to any merchant from Venice. The guy who bought those Barbies is set for life!"

****

A few minutes later, Seth looked at his younger brother and said, "I learned something bad today. Remember how we always wondered why Dad quit Barlow Subaru to go work at the Dollar Store? Turns out, Dad didn't quit, he got fired."

Aaron asked, "Who fired Dad? Jay Barlow? Or someone else?"

Stephanie said, "Barlow himself, count on it."

"That's one more reason the Hungarian guy did the world a favor," Aaron said. Aaron's right hand wielded an imaginary sword to cut the hand off an imaginary Jay Barlow, then to slice his throat.

"So what happened, Mom?" Seth asked. "Why did Jay Barlow fire Dad?"

"Well, the day after getting fired from Wilson Ford, your—"

"Hold on, Dad got fired from a second job?" Seth said.

"Where's Wilson Ford?" Aaron asked.

"Wilson Ford is in Fairmont, darlin'. Seth, your father got fired from Wilson Ford before he got fired from Barlow Subaru."

"Gotcha. Now back to the story."

"Anyway, the day after getting fired from Wilson Ford, Larry went straight to Lou Prickett Ford. But Chad Jenkins couldn't offer Larry a thing, except for floor sales."

"
Dratten das
," Seth replied, which was Amideutsch for "drat."

"Maybe, maybe not, darlin'," Stephanie replied. "Nowadays, Chad and Chip are fine men—lots to admire in those two. But back in the twentieth century, Chip the son was a blowhard who thought he was God's gift. I believe a man bears responsibility for how his son turns out, and besides being a bad father, Chad was a booby prize all on his own. If he was selling you a car, he'd rip out your lungs and then sell them back to you while you were trying to breathe."

"What about moms?" Aaron asked. "Are moms to blame for how their sons grow up?"

"As much as dads are," Stephanie said. Then she gave Aaron a big smile and said, "So I'm very relieved how fine you and Seth are turning out."

Seth gave her a thumb-up, but then he said, "Okay, so Dad couldn't get a job he liked at Prickett Ford. So then what happened?"

"Next he went to Trumble Buick-GMC, because they had the biggest lot in Grantville. Again nothing, except for the 'opportunity' to be a car salesman. Lowe's Chevrolet? Zilch. Then Larry talked to Jay Barlow."

"Who gave Dad a job."

Stephanie rocked her hand. "Barlow didn't have any opening for a manager, he said, but he did have an opening for a service writer. He told Larry he was going to do him 'a favor.' Barlow would pay Larry the same commission as the other service writers, plus pay Larry a quarter an hour in bonus."

Seth looked puzzled. "That wasn't a good thing?"

"At first we thought so. Then Larry realized that Barlow Subaru wasn't getting much business, so their service center wasn't getting much business. Mainly because people in Grantville weren't hot for foreign cars. But add to that, everyone had heard Barlow was a slimeball. Turned out, they were right."

"How so? What did he do to Dad?"

"Barlow had booze in his office. When he got drunk, he'd pick fights with his employees, screaming at them in front of other people."

"What a turkey," Aaron said.

"He sure was. Anyway, two months after Larry started there, Cyril Fodor up and quit. 'Bernard and I are starting up Fodor Brothers Auto Fix and Body' is what he told most people, but 'It's either quit now, or wear an orange jumpsuit for half my life' is what he told Larry. When Cyril left, Larry became service manager in all but name. This was in July of '96."

"Barlow didn't give Dad a promotion officially?" Seth asked. "That's sucky."

"Nope, Barlow didn't give Larry the title, or bump his pay. At first Larry gritted his teeth and said nothing. He had to."

Aaron said, "Sweet guy. I heard Noelle Stull tell somebody at Saint Mary's, Jay Barlow intended to shoot her down like a dog."

Stephanie nodded. "He probably expected she'd stand there and let him shoot her. When the Hungarian guy said no, Barlow probably planned to shoot him too—with the Hungarian guy letting him, of course."

Aaron's smile was bloodthirsty. "Things turned out different for ol' Barlow, didn't they?" Aaron started humming "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts."

Stephanie nodded. "Let that be a lesson to you, darlin'. When you act nasty to people, not everyone has to take it. And there's always someone better than you at acting nasty, if you make him want to."

Seth said, "Get to the nasty part. Dad getting fired."

"Larry worked at Barlow Subaru for eight months, and was unofficial service manager for six of those. Then in January of 1997, he was shooting the breeze with a car salesman about why they were selling so few cars. Barlow Subaru was actually selling more used cars than new Subarus. The salesman was blaming Subaru of America, and their ad agency, and 'nervous Nellies in Grantville,' yada-yada-yada. Larry said, 'No, the problem is, the whole town knows our boss is a crook.' "

"Wow! Dad really said that about Jay Barlow? At work?"

"Well, yeah. There was a rumor for years that Gil Kinney was stealing cars and chopping them for parts, and Barlow was fencing the parts."

"Probably true, considering how Gil Kinney died," Seth said. Sometime in May 1634, Kinney had been buried in a shallow grave in Bavaria. He'd been stabbed eight times.

Stephanie continued, "Your dad said Barlow was a crook, and somehow word got back to Barlow. The next day, your father got fired again—second time in eight months. Larry getting fired from Barlow Subaru kicked off the Year of Hell."

Seth did the math. "Dad got fired in January '97, and in November '97, a week before Thanksgiving, Dad moved out. So that time in between, it was hell for you?"

"Big-time hell, you bet."

Seth asked, "How does Geri Kinney fit in with this?"

Stephanie gasped. It was the question she never wanted to answer from one of her sons. Carefully she said, "Why do you mention that name?"

"Mom, you know Geri Kinney?" Aaron asked. Aaron would have heard about her from all the news coverage of two years ago.

"Some things on the news aren't intended for children, Aaron," Stephanie said. "You're too young to know about her."

"
 
'You're evading the question, darlin','
 
" Seth said, throwing Stephanie's own Mom-words back at her.

"Y'all both have uneaten cabbage on your plates," Stephanie replied.

Halle, SoTF

Thursday evening, May 8, 1636

The Halle Tailor Guild arranged for Tilda to spend the night with Master Tailor Fieker and his family. As for the wagon, its cargo, and Bradthuhn—

"You go inside, Frau Gundlachin," Bradthuhn said. "I'll sleep here in the wagon."

Indeed, Bradthuhn was volunteering to sleep in the wagon, with the horse hobbled in front of Fieker's Tailor Shop. That's what the blankets were for, it turned out.

Tilda was horrified. "Sleep in the wagon? You're not a dog, you're a man!"

Of course, they both knew that Tilda couldn't afford to put the wagon and horse in a stable for the night, much less pay to put Bradthuhn in an inn.

Bradthuhn looked down at her from the bed of the wagon; he shrugged. "I've slept in worse places. At least it's dry."

Bradthuhn would be sharing the wagon bed with the crated Higgins. Tilda pointed to it and said, "Shouldn't we bring this inside, so you can sleep more comfortably? Besides, if the sewing machine gets stolen, I'm ruined."

Bradthuhn said flatly, "To steal this, they'll have to sneak past me. Nobody will steal from you." His eyes were dead when he said that.

Tilda gave up then, thanked him, and went inside.

Of course, Tilda's sewing machine quickly became the dinner topic—

Master Tailor Fieker said, "I'll buy a Higgins when the price is reasonable. Right now, the price is robbery."

"What's 'reasonable'?" Tilda asked. "I'm told that some parts can be made only with up-time machines."

Frau Fieker replied, "That's what those greedy up-timer children have told their salesmen to tell you. Even if that's true, the price can be cheaper, I'm sure. Tailors like your Wilhelm who buy a Higgins, they're being squeezed by those children."

The Fieker children's attitude was opposite to their parents'. Both boys and girls hit Tilda with a blizzard of technical questions about the sewing machine, and the children closely examined Tilda's machine-sewn dress.

Halle

Friday morning, May 9, 1636

Bradthuhn and the wagon took Tilda to the Halle train station. Bradthuhn and a train-station worker unloaded the wagon, and carried everything to the "Baggage and Freight Check."

Tilda then smiled at Bradthuhn, and gave him heartfelt thanks for all his help. He grunted, and walked back to the wagon.

A minute later, Tilda gasped. "That much?"

Tilda nearly choked when she learned the cost of getting herself, the sewing machine, and her other worldly goods to Grantville.

As Tilda waited for the train, she thought, I wonder, does Grantville has a cathedral that I can sit and beg in front of?

Deep in thought, Tilda barely noticed the two up-timers, even though they were the first up-timers she'd ever seen. The up-timers were a man and a woman, and they were each wearing the blue pants that Tilda had heard tailors discuss so much.

Teacher's Lounge, Grantville High School

First Lunch, Friday, May 9, 1636

Shackerley Marmion was already at the table when Stephanie walked in, carrying a cloth shopping bag. Stephanie stopped by Shack and said, "Here you go, darlin'. As promised." From the shopping bag, Stephanie removed two folded-up blue garments and put them on the table.