King. Tanya Chapman
market and back again.
I keep Sissy away from the horses and the cows because they really are beautiful, and I know she would want to take one home and that just wouldn’t do. As it is, every time Spiney sees us coming home from the market he looks at me like Oh no, Hazel, not again. But then he’s happy because her crazy mood has passed. That’s just like Spiney: he wants everything to be okay, whatever it takes. Even if he has to live in a zoo.
They sell everything at the market. There’s cotton candy and dishcloths right beside pigs. Then on the other side of the pigs are sausages cooking on a grill. The pigs don’t seem to mind. There are also a million gadgets and fun things to look at, like old-fashioned radios and china teacups. And right beside those things are Kiss the Cook aprons and some crazy pens that light up and play a tune when you write with them. It’s like the market can’t make up its mind which century it’s in.
After a while of walking back and forth, Sissy sees this old farmer guy sitting on the tailgate of a dusty pickup. She goes over to him and looks in the back of the truck to see what he’s selling. As soon as I see her face, I know that this is the saved life.
‘A chicken, Sissy?’
‘Chickens are little.’
‘Yes, yes they are.’
So she buys a chicken and a big wire cage that she can set up in her yard. I buy six bulbs of flowers that bloom in the fall. We carry everything back to the Duster.
Sissy is ecstatic.
I want the chicken to go in the trunk, but she insists on putting it in the back seat so she can put the seat belt around the cage. And when Sissy smiles and says ‘pleeease’ like she’s doing right now I can’t say no.
‘You did a good thing today, Sissy.’
‘I love that chicken already.’
‘What’s it called?’
‘Buck, of course.’
‘You’re real awful with names, Sissy.’
‘It runs in the family.’
She gives me another big grin, and me and Sissy and Buck and six fall-blooming bulbs head home.
When we get to the trailer, King and Spiney are waiting for us, ready to take the second shift in case Sissy was still in a mood. King has bought all kinds of ice cream treats. We eat Drumsticks as Spiney sets up the cage for Buck and Sissy gives us all a running narration on the proper care and maintenance of chickens.
Spiney is so glad to have Sissy back to normal that you would think he was happy to have that mangy chicken show up.
King holds his Drumstick up for a cheers and says, ‘Nice work, Hazel.’
‘As Old Joe says,’ I quote, ‘there’s nothing a little bit of sweetness can’t fix.’
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