The soil around Celia and Jo's trailer was hard and lacked nutrients. Even so, they did what they could with sticks in their hands to dig up as much dirt as they could on Sunday—the sole day they were not required to work. Celia had no issue convincing Jo to join her in doing this to create beds for the planting of crops. He was less depressed today, so that meant he could aid her a lot in developing her three-pronged alternative approach to improve their living standards.

She noted that by having electricity, water and food, they would be better off than most in the trailer park. The average trailer had either one or two of these amenities; for someone to have all three was rare. If anything, having such things available to them would put them at risk of robbery by those with spiteful eyes. There were some that would even destroy everything with no one around if they weren't careful.

With Jo's revolver and their already severe paranoia towards anyone who would enter their abode uninvited, they believed they were fine from such persons.

Even so, the toughness of the ground proved to be a challenge they underestimated. Celia believed that with their determined labour, they would uproot the soil. However, outside of some light scratches, they were making no progress.

As the heat of the afternoon sun became too much, they decided to hide beneath the small shadow formed by the trailer.

"Celia, this isn't working. The ground is way too hard for us to use sticks." Jo took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off his face using his forearm. "We need something more suited for this, like a shovel."

His assessment of their situation was logical, but this lack of access was the reason they utilised sticks and not shovels. There was not a single tool similar to a shovel that was within the miniscule plot of land surrounding their trailer.

This would therefore force them to talk to their neighbours—and they hated this. Their awful manner of dress and the negligent state of their homes were enough indicators to avoid them. But they needed something from them, so this personal rule would have to be broken.

They went to the blocky mobile home situated to their right to see a hairy, overweight man in plaid boxers sunbathing on a lawn chair. Outside of some exceptions, the trailers in Bale were many variations of curved or blocky.

The two were rather quiet as they stood near him with great fear. Their neighbours were ones that cursed, fought, and even let out huge wads of shit out in public. These were some of the same people who tried to rob Celia whenever they saw her passing through.

Fortunately, she would scare them away every time—whether with a crowbar, a large stone, or an empty glass bottle of alcohol. This contrasted Jo's experiences where they would often target him at his most tired or malnourished to steal the few dollars he had.

Such inexcusable behaviour was why they were so uncomfortable being around someone like the man sitting in front of them. With a folded towel over his eyes, he could not tell that he was being watched.

You should wake him up, Jo. Celia gave him a slight nudge forward to encourage him while whispering. Since you're almost an adult, you should be able to stand your ground.

Why don't you do it? Being much taller than me, you should handle him. And if I'm being honest, your height is more intimidating than whatever I could do... that is unless you want me to kill this man right now as he sleeps.

All you have to do is threaten him with your gun. Someone like you should understand that girls don't fight grown men.

To Jo, she was becoming more intolerable with each sentence. Even with his gun hanging from his waist and hidden beneath his shirt, he wouldn't use it against someone without them initiating an attack.

Their disagreement in who would approach him had become louder and louder until several people within earshot could hear them, including a family having a picnic on their front lawn, a middle-aged woman in a wheelchair, and a man leaning back on a pole while drinking his tenth can of beer.

As expected, the man they were unwilling to speak to removed his towel and woke up. They were stunned by the man's question, enabling quick responses to diffuse what could be the escalation of a dangerous situation.

"Come on. No need to tell me a bunch of bullshit." His nails satisfied the itch on his salt and pepper beard.

"We are telling you the truth, we promise." Celia was not lying to the man. She was not one to do so... at least not very well.

The dazed look on the man's face broke into that of laughter. "You know no one plants crops during the summer, right? The sun at this time of year would roast any seedling alive and hardens the ground into bedrock."

"What's a seedling?" Jo had never heard that term before. He understood that plants grew stuff that humans would eat, but neither him nor Celia were taught how to grow them. They thought if they copied the rows of dirt beds in his back garden, plants like peppers and tomatoes, however shriveled they might look, would appear.

The man was not shocked to hear this. Much of the knowledge of gardening had become lost to younger generations unless they were homeschooled like him. "If you don't know what's a seedling, then I don't think having a shovel will help you. Waiting for the spring rains will be the best time to grow crops."

Both of them were impressed with what they told him so far. They would have never guessed that gardening was so difficult. Celia clearly misjudged the food aspect of her plan. She believed it would be the easiest of the three, but having overturned heaps of dirt would produce nothing for the next nine or so months.

"Hey, can you teach us some of the stuff you know about planting?" It was clear to Celia they would still be dependent on the factory for food for the foreseeable future. But if he was willing to teach them how to grow their own food, they would have the information necessary to not make some of the mistakes they made today.

He accepted their request with a casual shrug. "You all are not willing to start today, aren't you?"

"Well, we're quite tired and the sun is stinging quite a bi—"

"Great! Sounds like you all are not ready. I'll tell you all when I'm free to teach you, and today is not that day." He tried to shoo them off since he had not finished his sunbath.

"I must thank you for being so kind to us. We thought you were the type that stole from people or pissed in the streets."

"No problem, kid. That's why you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover."

"But can you blame us? If more people here were like you, we wouldn't have such bad views about our own people." Jo couldn't tolerate such a concept. Determining people as good or bad by appearance saved them from so much trouble.

He pulled them into a huddle and quieted them down. Celia and Jo were unaware of some of the people watching them. He didn't want what he said to be interpreted as an insult despite its truth.

You all should know while you aren't wrong for feeling the way you feel, you know our problems as a people is not because of us, it's the system that's the problem. You really think if we were free, that we would do the things we do to each other?

There was no need for either to answer the obvious, but they did so to hear more of his wise words.

So whenever you see our people do every evil imaginable, remember to be sympathetic knowing that our lives should never be like this. He let them walk away, but not without letting them connect to his small solar power setup at any time using his one of his really long extension cords. It blended in well with the old junk around his yard, eliminating prying eyes from taking it.

They said their thanks and told him to enjoy the rest of his day. After seeing them stroll into their home, he plopped his butt back onto his seat and placed his towel over his eyes.

Damn it, Mrs. Tim. These are the kind of kids you wanted to have if you were still here. The burning on Mr. Tim's skin quickly eradicated this sad thought, but the reality of living without the one he loved still hurt deep inside.