ChickenPeeps By River Jordan

"Mom!  I'm going to play outside!"  It was the first day of summer break and I was ready to play freeze tag with my friend Dottie from across the street.

"Okay, don't go far!" Mom always let me play with Dottie, even when it was dusk outside.  "But don't go further than Dottie's yard.  Darla, go with your sister!" I knew that was coming.  I let my breath go frustratedly, but ran outside happily anyway.  Darla was my older sister and everyone thought she was cool. 

We'd just moved into my great grandmother's house, it was tiny but had a big yard and lots of chickens.  The kind that are not in cages.  Our house out in the country had burned down and my Aunt Rachel had invited us to stay in great grandma's house.  

Dottie and Cathy were waiting for us outside.  We had a plan.  First, we would play Hide N Seek.  Then, it would be storytelling time! 

"Hi Dottie! Hi Cathy!"  I ran up to them. 

"Not it!" said Cathy.

"Not it!" yelled Dottie as she ran off to hide.  I looked at my sister Darla and knew that I'd be the Seeker for this game.

I covered my eyes with my arm and leaned my face against the Chinaberry tree in the middle of our yard. "One, two, three..."  I counted to fifty and turned around, no sight of anyone!

Cathy would be easy to find, she always hid in Uncle Pete's workshop.  I ran as quietly as I could.  I stood on tiptoe to look into the window.  Smiling confidently, I went around back and entered in through the back door.  She was crouched next to the front door because she was afraid to go deeper into the darkness of the workshop.  I wasn't and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Daisy!!" She shrieked.  We both giggled and ran out to find the others. 

We found Dottie up on a tree branch.  Cathy jumped up and tapped her out.

All three of us spent the next ten minutes searching for Darla.  She'd hidden under the house which I would never do because there were spiders down there!

Dottie reached in to tap her but couldn't reach her.  We all declared Darla the winner, again.

It was now full dark and we gathered around the huge Chinaberry tree and attempted to scare each other silly.  As usual we laughed until tears squirted out of our eyes.

Mom called us in and we quickly made our plans for the next day.

***

That night Mom, Darla and I slept in the strange metal bed next to the window.  We prayed for Daddy to come home.

Soon their sleeping muffled breaths whispered in the room.  My shower that proved to relax my mom and sister, did the opposite for me.  I lay on one arm, looking out of the window up at the moon. 

It’s frightening to sleep in a strange house sometimes.  But I must have slipped into sleep because I remember waking later, my body twitching awake as if I’d been startled.

I was awake but with my eyes closed.  But they flew open when I heard a strange noise.  A little noise that sounded like a door creaking open.

I looked to see if the door had opened but it hadn’t.

The strange noises kept me awake and after a while I nudged my mom awake.

“Mom” I whispered, “wake up”

“What is it Daisy?” she said sleepily.

”What’s that noise?”  It was more obvious now.  A creaking noise, then a responding noise.  The most scary images kept flitting through my mind.

“It’s the chickens, they’re talking.”  Mom said and promptly began to snore lightly again.

“What?” The slow little creaks were actually chicken peeps? 

“They’re talking in their sleep.”  Mama responded, frustration showing.

“What are they saying?”  The thought of chickens talking to each other mesmerized me and my mind flew with the possibilities.

“Daisy, I don’t speak chicken, okay?  Go to sleep, now.” 

I lay my head back down and thought about that for  a minute.  The thought of the chickens talking made me smile.  Suddenly I was giggling and my giggling woke Darla up.  When I told her what mom had said we were both giggling uncontrollably.

“Girls!  It’s the middle of the night, go to sleep!”  We finally controlled our giggles and soon drifted off to sleep.  The end.

Did I ever tell you about the time I woke with a chicken in my bed?