Macy was on her lunch break. Usually, she would go back to her apartment and eat a bowl of her favorite cereal, Lucky Charms, but today she was feeling adventurous. The incident at the carnival had boosted Macy's self esteem; she was proud of how well she had handled the bear-man and his sly coaxing. Macy passed a diner and considered the possibility of eating her lunch there. Through the window she saw a girl, probably in her twenties, sitting in a booth, making little movements with her mouth as if she were talking to herself. The girl looked terrified, her eyes huge with shock. A few people in the diner were giving her worried glances, but for the most part ignored her.
"Maybe she is waiting for her friends like I am," Macy thought. "Maybe they abandoned her like my friends did me."
A waitress noticed Macy's intense stare through the window and knocked on the glass, pointing to a sign that read, "No Soliciting."
Disheartened by the sudden arousal of her sadness, Macy decided to just go back to the library, flip through some books, and skip lunch altogether.
She walked back down the street much slower than she had walked up it. The day was dull, everything was dull.
"Cluck, cluck," came a noise at her feet. And Macy had thought her day couldn't get any worse! A terrifying, humongous chicken was pecking at her shoes.
"Aaaa!" Macy screamed. Startled, the chicken violently flapped its wings, screeched, and hurriedly waddled away. But there were more; there were clucking hens all over the street! Convinced that chickens were finally declaring war on humans, Macy ran back to the library, eager to escape before the battle began.
9:00 AM
ReplyDeleteWell, here I am at the library. For once, Macy arrived on time; she was here in time to help me ready the library for opening. I hope she makes a habit of it.
9:10 AM
No one in the library. Except, of course, Macy, but right now she's pacing at one of the windows and looking up at the densely clouded sky, as though hoping for Jesus to pop out of the clouds and say 'yes, Macy. It's all true. Repent and believe!'
9:23 AM
Except I don't believe Macy is talking to God. What's she saying? Something about friends forgetting her.
9:25 AM
I'm bored. I think I'll drink some tea.
12:25 PM
Macy left to go out on her lunch break, but she came back rather quickly, running like a madwoman. She kicked up her heels off the ground very high and slammed the library door after her. I would scold her, but my mouth is full of cheese and crackers. Ah well. She looks like something just tried to eat her.
12:28 PM
Checked out the window for suspicious, man-eating animals. So far, no Godzilla is visible. I think Macy just had a nervous breakdown, poor girl.
2:45 PM
Drank 2 liters of hot tea.
2:46 PM
More importantly, I've gone to the bathroom more often than I think must be healthy.
3:00 PM
There's a bird on the window sill outside the library.
3:01 PM
Quite a large bird, actually. I haven't got my glasses on at the moment, so I can't make it out very well.
3:02 PM
Perhaps it is a pigeon.
3:02 PM
I hate pigeons.
3:05 PM
I'm going to bang on the window pane and make it go away.
3:05 PM
That is definitely not a pigeon, now that I get closer to it.
3:06 PM
Good heavens, it's a chicken. And there are about five more in the ratty little scrap of grass in front of the library, pecking away like mad. I suppose all this wet weather really brings up the earthworms; a chicken's smorgasbord.
But that is not the point; the point is, there's a posse of chickens in front of my library. And the second point is... Why is there a group of chickens in front of my library?
"Macy, come here a moment." As weird as that girl is, she might know where the chickens came from. Or maybe because she's so weird she might know. "Look--there are chickens in the front yard."
Macy looks rather terrified. "They tried to get at me when I was outside before! Why are they there? "
Drat. My source of neighborhood information has failed me. She also appears to be hanging onto sanity by a thread. But I'd best respond. "I haven't the foggiest."
"Foggiest what?"
These young people. Don't even know a commonplace idiom. "I haven't the faintest idea," I translated out of the goodness of my heart.
"Well, should we do anything about them?" I can detect a note of worry in Macy's voice. Perhaps she thinks I will make her do something about them.
"No, just leave them. They're only chickens." And even mad birds like chickens have the right to roam free. Just as much right as an old woman, I should say.
3:10 PM
Macy's gone to hide in the Astronomy Section.
3:30 PM
Hahaha. Chickens move in a funny way, jerking their legs in time with their heads, like little wound-up clockwork toys. Bokbok. Bokbok. It's fun to make a chicken voice and strut about like one of the silly birds.
3:32 PM
I should stop doing this in public. One of the people in the Romance Section gave me a funny look.
Altan stopped answering questions and ignored all comments and insults shouted his way. The only people he paid mind to were the gawkers; they were the only people showing no movement whatsoever in this mass of motion. They were almost completely immobile, and they stood out to Altan like neon signs. There was a girl with a frizzy, blond wig, a man who was overly dressed, and a girl who looked like she'd just escaped a fire. At this moment, they all embodied what Altan desired - stillness.
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