642 Things to Write About - "The Morning of Unusual Events"

For the next week, we’re going to be doing something different on the Pencils Blog. In addition to pencil news and updates, our staff will be writing short stories using prompts from 642 Things to Write About, the most popular book in the Pencils.com Bookstore.

This story, by Elizabeth Harman, is based on the following prompt:

Find a photograph. Write the story of what’s happening outside of the frame.

The morning of unusual events

“A coyote must have gotten Sissy. There’s just nowhere else to look, honey.”

Jane patted her son on the back, wiping the flow of tears away with one hand and the wet hairs off his face with the other. His whimpering had grown so loud that the house dog was circling the front door, sure there must be some sort of threat. Jane wondered if he was too young to know about coyotes and their thirst for chickens, but figured the grief of death was inevitable on a farm.

Todd trailed off into a burst of fresh tears. Sissy had been his favorite, he had lived on the farm with her since he could remember. He named her Sissy when he found out what a sibling was. He had carried her around in his trike basket in the yard, tried walking her (unsuccessfully) with a leash several times, and whenever he ate an egg she had laid he made sure to thank her the next time he saw her. Todd would wake up extra early before school to pick seeds out of fallen apples from the tree in the front yard to make sure they were OK for the birds to eat.

“Jane, come take a look at this. There’s no way Todd is waiting at the bus stop today.”

Mother and son went into the living room where her husband was dressed for cow milking. “Look at this,”he said, nodding his head towards the television.

Images of burnt grass patches and skin rashes flashed over the screen. “The local nuclear plant had to transport their waste and couldn’t use public roads so used a plane. There was a leak on the aircraft. Those burns in the ground are from dropped nuclear waste. Todd can’t be walking around outside anywhere today, who knows what’s lying around on the ground. Why don’t you take him to school and I’ll finish cleaning.”

Todd still looked a little dazed, so his father said kindly, “go ahead now, son, it’ll take your mind off Sissy.”

It only took a couple minutes to get Todd’s backpack and lunch together, so Jane and Todd headed to the family car.

“What in the jolly green giant is that?!”yelled Todd. Jane turned from the car lock and gazed in the direction of her son’s pointing. It was Sissy. But it wasn’t Sissy. She had the same brown and white spot on her head, same slightly different colored eyes. It looked as though Sissy had flown up the apple tree but then….crushed it. When Sissy saw Jane and Todd the chicken hopped back to her usual feeding spot with the other hens, expectantly looking to be fed more.

“It was from the nuclear waste!”Jane yelled with excitement. Todd’s eyes were swimming now with joy, not sorrow. His small body ran to Sissy fearlessly and he wrapped his arms around the now 800-pound chicken’s neck.