The Twinbrook immigrant community decided they needed fresh vegetables, and would support one of them to work full time as a gardener.
Meggie Who took the offer and moved into the tiny gardener's cottage.
A very determined Sim, she was going to make her living by gardening, or die trying! But the soil was rather heavy and clayey - since her "garden" was basically a large hole, that wasn't very surprising.
She decided she would have to fish for fertilisers to help the plants along.
She really disliked Spock Block.
The shack was really very small indeed. She did some courses and started on the gardening.
Scout Sergeant's double-bass playing was not really THAT bad.
"What are you even doing here? This is OUR place, OUR social club. Your kind don't belong here, you old prune."
"How dare you? You don't even wear shoes! My mother is most definitely NOT a Llama. And unlike you, I can play.... oww.
How dare you poke me! That is assault!"
"No, this is assault..."
Having sat Meggie down very hard on the wooden floor, Scout told her "I and my husband are police officers, you think I don't know how to handle a fight? and I am tempted to arrest you for common assault and breach of the peace."
And the guitarist played on.
Meggie was embarassed, and bruised. She must have got a knock on the head and felt quite ill. She lay down on the couch to wait for her head to clear.
Scout did in fact call her husband, who came over straight from training camp.
"That redhead?"
"How dare you imply that my mother-in-law is a Llama?"
"Because your wife looks like one."
Meggie at least was consistent, if stupid.
"Want some more?"
"No. I think you broke something."
"I'm going to add your name to the list of troublemakers in this district which is growing longer by the minute. My colleagues will be keeping an eye out for you. And I want to see you at the station tomorrow with your immigration papers."
Meggie felt awful. And of course she didn't have any papers. She escaped and went home to sleep it off.
Snowball was gossiping with Iggy about the fight. "... never seen her lose a fight before, till this evening."
Flower joined the conversation. "Did you hear, he asked for her papers. If they are going to start doing that, we will all be in trouble. We've got to make her behave."
Snowball laughed. "Make her behave? Meggie? Some chance."
"Well, with Gavin Hutton in charge now, who knows what will happen?"
"He's trouble, that's for sure. I'll go and have a chat with her, when she's sobered up."
Invisi went to visit the following night. They talked for a long time. Meggie agreed to stay out of trouble, and to try not to pick on townies.
"They don't understand that this is our way of playing. Our culture is different." said Invisi.
"I suppose so. I just want to have some fun at their expense. Who is this Gavin Hutton guy people keep talling me about?"
"He's the Leader of the Free World - bad news for us. And he's staying in Twinbrook right now. Spock has written about him. I'll bring you a couple of books over. He is a rather mean right-winger, but like all politicians, he's really just out for what he can get. Feral elite job. He's rich and knows everyone that matters here: if he wants something he gets it. That makes him very dangerous. And thanks to your antics, we have got his attention."
A few days later and still curious about this whole trailer park business, Gavin Hutton decided to pay a quiet State visit to Meggie's shack.
Leaving his limo at the main road as its springs would not cope with the rough terrain around the trailer park, and his bodyguards outside the tiny wooden house, he entered Meggie's shack and explained he was here to find out what life on the trailer park was like.
"You are all voters, I believe. At least, I assume you have papers, so you must be."
Meggie smiled nervously and offered him a fresh pomegranate, which he ate happily.
"Ahh, this is good! You are growing your own food?"
"Well, not exactly," smiled Meggie. "This is meant to be a community garden for all of us in the trailer park, so that we will have a small supply of fresh fruit."
"Most commendable! What a good idea. I had been led to believe you were - a bit of a troublemaker, but you seem to be an active citizen in your community. I have also visited the Social, and was quite impressed with it. You have quite a lively group of folk here, and you seem to be building your own little bit of Big Society here."
Meggie didn't want to explain that without papers it was quite hard to get a job in Twinbrook, and that they had been forced to do things for themselves. "I'm teaching myself to cook, and someone fishes for fertilisers for my vegetables."
"But you really need better housing, this shack is - well, you've made it comfortable, but you ahve very little space."
"I spend very little time indoors, but it works for me. But yes," admitted Meggie. "I dream sometimes of having a proper house like Iggy's - she's a friend of mine, married to Spock Block, the journalist."
"Oh, yes, I know him well." Gavin, as a politician, had much respect for Spock as a worthy opponent. "Is Spock from your country too?"
"Actually, they both are. Some of us have done very well here. But Spock moved here a long time ago, he was never in the trailer park."
Gavin filed away this juicy factlet for future use.
"I'm talking to the Planning Committee tomorrow. Maybe we can come up with something better than a trailer park for you immigrants."
"That would be great! Thank you very much!" On reflection later, Meggie was not quite sure how to take this. "What did he mean? Council housing?
Meggie's story continues in
Meggie Who is a Self-Sim from MATY, downloadable from this thread.