Sheldon The Chicken Chicken
Published by Gregory Lynn at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 Gregory Lynn
Cover design Doug Lance
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thanks.
Sheldon The Chicken Chicken
Sheldon was a chicken chicken. That is, he was a member of the species Gallus gallus domesticus and he was afraid of everything. On this day—it was a Thursday—he did as he always did. He woke up with the sun, stretched his wings and went out into the farm yard.
He took a moment to stretch out in the sun before scanning the yard to see who was out and about. He saw Mrs Biddy, the oldest hen in the yard, taking her customary morning constitutional and went over to greet her.
“Good morning, Mrs. Biddy, it’s a beautiful day isn’t it?”
“She’ll be out in a minute or two.”
Sheldon grinned a guilty grin and said, “Whatever do you mean? I just came over to say good morning to the wisest chicken on the farm.”
“I’m old, not stupid.”
“Do I need ulterior motives to come say hello?”
“No,” she said, smiling, “but you usually have them anyway.”
“You have wounded me to my core, Mrs. Biddy, positively to the core.”
Mrs. Biddy harrumphed.
“Ah, well, if that is the way it is to be I shall remove myself from your presence and allow you to continue your stroll in peace.”
And with that, he left Mrs. Biddy to her walk and strolled over to the feeding station. He forced himself to keep it at a stroll and not a scurry. It was breakfast time, and the fact that Becky was there was utterly coincidental. Utterly.
Becky was the prettiest chick on the farm and Sheldon had spent every morning for at least six weeks failing to work up the courage to talk to her.
“Good morning, Becky.” Sheldon almost fainted from the sense of relief at getting it out.
Becky smiled prettily, “Good morning Sheldon.”
Somehow, when Becky said his name, it didn’t sound so silly.
After eating a few bites in awkward silence as he tried to watch Becky with half an eye, he turned to her and said, “Would you like to take a walk around the yard?”
Sheldon was pretty sure she said yes. She was smiling, at least, but Sheldon couldn’t actually hear anything over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. And they walked. They walked past the feeding station, past the new red coop, and out to the edge of the fence, talking all the way. Sheldon wondered why he’d taken so long to work up the courage to talk to her. Talking to her was as easy as a Summer breeze.
They followed the fence all the way to the big road, where Sheldon paused. He was a bit afraid of the road. Not really the road, but the big trucks that would roar by every so often. He looked each way and didn’t see any so they kept on walking.
“I wonder,” Becky said, “what’s on the other side?”
Sheldon stopped, surprised, and turned to look across the road. “I never thought of that.”
“Oh I’ve wondered it for a long time. Sometimes I come out here and just stare over there wondering. I mean, there’s trees but you can see that there is something beyond the trees, you just can’t tell what’s there.”
“I wonder if we could find out what’s over there?”
“We could go over and look.”
Sheldon shivered, “I’m not so sure about that.”
Just then, as Sheldon turned his back on the road to face Becky, a ginormous truck sped by with a roar that shook Sheldon to his toes. Sheldon squawked and ran a few feet in a frenzy before realizing the truck was already gone.
“Sheldon! What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing really,” Sheldon tried to say through breathless pants, “It’s just I’m a little anxious about loud noises and big trucks.”
“Oh that’s okay Sheldon, why don’t we walk back?”
But as they turned back they turned right into an onrushing Stubbs McGee.
Stubbs McGee was older and bigger than Sheldon. Heck, Stubbs McGee was bigger than almost everyone. Most of the younger chickens in the yard disliked him because he was something of a bully. Sheldon didn’t dislike many animals but he loathed Stubbs McGee.
“Hey Sheldon, watcha doin?”