Roscoe was loud.
He cockadoodledooed in the morning
in the afternoon
at night.
and whenever he felt like it.
Miranda and all his wives adored him.
When he puffed up his chest
getting ready to let out his war whoop
they all stopped eating
and looked at him with adoring
beady black chicken eyes.
We had eggs.
The problem was
nobody wanted to kill
any member of Mom's chicken family.
One bright day Daddy got himself pulled together
got an ax
and went out back to choose which hen would die.
Mom came out with him
because there was one hen, Abigail,
that was a troublemaker
always keeping the pot stirred
and the other hens cackled
and pecking at Roscoe the Rooster's tail
so Mom thought she wouldn't mind
getting rid of her.
So Daddy opened the gate
and Abigail came right over
thinking that if there was any extra food
coming their way
she would get her share first.
Daddy swooped her up in his arms.
Abigail was humiliated that Daddy was holding her
a perfectly healthy fat hen
who could get where she wanted to go
on her own
so she pecked at his eyelashes.
"Yep, this is the one,"
Daddy said
giving her head a thunk.
"She's a mean old hen."
We all felt that she deserved to die
because she was so ornery.
So when Daddy brought her up to the stump
and put his foot on her round body
to trap her
and brought the ax down
only Jimmy ran inside.
The rest of us stood there
appalled
horrified
as Abigail jumped off the stump
and waddled around the yard
headless.
Mom screamed.
Daddy didn't know which way to turn.
Wes ran after the waddling headless hen
but when he got to her
he wouldn't pick her up because she was bloody.
It was awful.
Poor Abigail.
Finally Daddy got himself pulled together again
and hollered for a towel
or a pillowcase
and I ran and got a pillowcase off the boys bed
and Daddy rolled Abigail up in it
and her skinny chicken legs twitched
and she died.
Daddy got a shovel out of the garage
and buried poor Abigail
out back of the chicken house.
Mom fixed salt pork gravy and biscuits
for supper that night.
It was a long time before any of us
had a taste for chicken again.
Music playing: Chicken Dance
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Story taken from my actual diaries
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