Baubles and Blue Birds

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.

Baubles and Blue Birds

By Plot Roach
　
She watched her partner move through the row of vendors and waited for the signal to strike. Mary moved among the rest of the shoppers, picking up various items, pretending to scrutinize the tags and set the items down to move onto the next booth. Vanessa waited and watched carefully, making notes of which items to take and what vendors were watching too closely for her to strike.

There was a code in the movements of Mary that told Vanessa where to strike. If the item was returned in its exact location, it meant that the item was not worth taking. It if was set on its side, it was worth pocketing, but not if it came with a chance of getting caught. If the item was set upside down or backwards, on the edge of a display or in front of another item which would mask its location from the eyes of the vendor, then it was the Holy Grail.

Mary and Vanessa had worked this tradeshow before, and many others like it. The Big Valley Natural Living Trade Show was designed to provide sellers (everyone from big name corporations to the little start-up mom and pop businesses) with a place to exhibit their wares to the general public as well as local shops looking to stock their products. This show was notorious for the free samples that were given out daily. The problem was that most of the vendors preferred giving away their products only at the end of the show, on Sunday, to people who were actual customers rather than just scavengers. So the scavengers had to get creative if they wanted the goods before they were picked over.

On Friday the “newbies” learned their lesson the hard way: that which was not closely watched or nailed down was pillaged by apprentice and master scavengers alike. At the end of a Friday show you could see the look of dismay on a vendor’s face as he surveyed his empty booth as if it were a ravaged post apocalyptic wasteland. And when the vendors upped their security to keep their goods out of harms way, the scavengers evolved in the process.

Vanessa eyed a merchant from the corner of her eye as she picked up a box of pasta and pretended to look at the ingredients. When the booth owner was not looking she bumped the table with her hip and sent the jar of imported organic olives off the table and into the bag she had set down next to it. She replaced the box of pasta and headed off to the next booth. The merchant eyed her with suspicion, sure that he had lost something, but unable to prove it.

Mary was chatting to a vendor three booths down, her hand absently tapping the top of a jar of blueberry honey. Vanessa sidled up to the booth, turned her back to the owner now talking feverishly about his product with Mary. A quick glance in either direction showed no other workers in the booth, so she tossed three bottles of the honey into her open bag, kicking it for good measure so that the contents of the bag would settle under the paperwork she had placed on top as a type of camouflage for the stolen booty beneath. She also dropped a bottle of the honey to mask the thumps into her bag. The man broke off his conversation with Mary to investigate. Mary chose that time to escape to another booth as Vanessa feigned embarrassment at dropping the jar. She apologized to the man, who seeing nothing of his wares in her bag, smiled as she left.

Vanessa watched as a woman made quick work of another merchant’s nutritional bar display. He had thought his goods protected by taping the open faces of the boxes with see-through packing tape. But the woman simply pretended to set her bags down to adjust the nylon stocking on one leg while the nails of her other hand broke through the clear tape and loaded up her bag. Beware the Dragon Lady with claws that rend, Vanessa thought, shaking her head. It was common enough knowledge among the scavengers that some women had their nails done the night before, a manicure that included a special exacto knife hidden just beneath the fake nail. It could not be felt in a gentle shaking of hands, but if the nail pushed against an unyielding object…

Mary and Vanessa worked the show, depositing enough items in the back of the car to make it sag visibly. By the time the show was closed for the night, both women were weary and Vanessa surveyed the booty which they acquired. “You know, I forgot I even stole that.” she told Mary, pointing to the life sized glass boot filled with maple syrup.

“I can’t believe you got away with it.” Mary said.

“Yeah, well. Maybe he should have paid more attention to his booth rather than your boobs.” Vanessa shrugged. “Same time on Sunday to battle over the leftovers?”

“Deal. I need to get going. Some of this stuff needs to be refrigerated. We’ll settle up on Monday and see if we can sell any of it to some of the local shops.”

Vanessa nodded and headed for the local bus stop not three blocks from the convention center. While waiting, she explored her pockets, pulling out the items she had forgotten to put in the back of Mary’s car. There was a tube of sunscreen, a tin of coffee flavored mints, a citrus flavored smoothie nutritional bar (which she ate immediately) and a small stuffed blue bird. It had been handed to her as a promotional item from the Blue Bird Feel Good Natural Supplement Company. She shoved it back into her pocket and watched as the bus lurched to a stop in front of her.

She chose a seat next to the back and immediately regretted her decision when the child next to her threw a tantrum and tossed his bottle out of the bus’s window. “Bauble! Bauble! Bauble!” He cried.

“I can’t get your bottle, you threw it out of the bus and we can’t go back and get it!” The mother screamed over the boy’s harsh cries. The two battled for five more minutes as the volume escalated enough to drive everyone on the bus to shoot the two loud passengers evil looks.

Vanessa sighed and reached into her pocket for the mints, but her hand came into contact with something small and fuzzy. “I have a magic trick to show you, but only if you behave for your mother and are quiet the rest of the ride home, okay?” she asked the toddler.

He nodded, his eyes still streaming and blowing a snot bubble from one nostril. His mother took the chance to wipe his face clean as he watched in fascination as Vanessa pulled the small stuffed bird from her pocket and produced it with a flourish to the little boy. “It belongs to you now, but you have to be really quite the rest of the ride home or else you might scare it away.”

The boy hugged the blue bird to him and soon drifted off to sleep. Vanessa smiled, and added the title of magician to her resume of scavenger and product sales.