Free Grantville Gazette, Volume 40 by Paula Goodlett, edited by Paula Goodlett

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.