h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

121. Spotlight on Crepuscular Meadows: A modern-day Hooverville

Dear reader, most of the people you have read about so far could manage to stay safe and feed themselves when their stomachs were empty. Today, we look at some people who always lived on the margins, or were put there by layoffs caused by Covid-19.

There was an abandoned railway tunnel near the reservoir. Naomi Fenster, a runaway who always had the option of reuring to a stern but protective father, had been camping in a makeshift tent along the edges of the reservoir all Summer, but it was getting too cold for that.

The tunnel stayed warmer than the outside – were there thermal springs in there? Naomi headed for the tunnel on a day in Mid-November. She noticed several campers and beat-up travel trailers hugging the edge of the hill where the tunnel came out. Extension cords snaked their way to these vehicles from a pole that ran alongside the road.

Yes, people were stealing power. Maybe some of that power was being used to run space heaters – a dangerous practice, but Naomi was hardly in a position to be holiwer than thou about such things.

She peered in the window of one trailer and saw six people huddled together, eating from cans that they had probably gotten at the food pantry.

Naomi made up her mind to return to her parents. The warm weather was gone, and who knew if these people would survive the Winter here?

These were dark times. If the virus didn't get you, there were other threats that might.

Naomi had taken some odd jobs to get her through the Summer, and she had enough bus fare to get back to her parents. She was one of the lucky ones.

God bless her and the people n the campers and trailers.