FLASH FICTION:WHAT HAPPENED your face? Dont pull away. When I was twelve. There was a raid on the site. Six o'clock in the morning. We were pulled out of our beds; all the young feens. Seemingly, there'd been a spate of robberies in the area. Our John and Michael were arrested. Running out after them, my brothers were telling me to get back into the trailer.
Your hands are soft. Did you enjoy the day? The best wedding of all the Connors. Last night, our wedding night, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. All the dancing and the singing. Then watching you go home with your sisters. Wishing you were coming home with me to our new trailer.
But you’re here now. The mark on my hand; when I was running back to the trailer a guard pushed me down on the ground. Then he stood on it. There were no stolen goods on the site, just outdated parking fines. Give us a kiss. Im not making a laugh of your face. You’re beautiful. Sit beside me. Tell me; your face, who did it to you?
The memory still frightens me. Make-up only irritates it. That’s why I had my head to one side. The wedding photographs – our wedding photographs. Im half afraid of buffers. Our Teeny was a baby, I was minding her. It happened when I was eleven. They came from nowhere. Families fled their trailers and ran up to the ditch over the river bank for safety. All the other trailers were empty. Both groups on either side; Pavees shouting and buffers shouting back at them. There were more of them than there were of us. Daddy was trying to get back to get me and Teeny. The other feens were holding him. The buffers thought he was trying to start trouble. A young settled fella came over to the trailer and started rocking it. I grabbed Teeny, lifted up the bunk where we were sitting and got into it. We were lying down. Suddenly the sound of mens’ voices came from nowhere. The windows broke. Smithereens everywhere. Our Teeny was crying. My hand was over her mouth. What were the settled feens going to do to us? Eventually the beoirs told the guards me and Teeny were tumbled upside down inside the trailer. A guard got in the window and pulled both of us out. All the beoirs were crying when they saw us covered in glass. The guard was carrying me and I was holding our Teeny. He was wiping the shards from my face. He had a lot of blood on him. The settled people were stunned into silence. All the Travellers were thanking and clapping as the young guard was trembling.
