Random Requests

Down East to Piorhik Farm

               

               Piorhik Farm was currently under renovations to leave its past deeds as a slaughterhouse behind and embrace the new animal reserve that the contractors envisioned it to be. The plans had been in the making for over two decades, pushed back multiple times due to money shortages and legal constrictions laid in place over the far stretch of land; the original contractor now elderly and unable to fulfill the sole wish of 20 years, her health in decline. Though you would never guess by looking at her, not a single wrinkle or grey hair in sight, not slouched nor visibly in pain, and yet she had been bedbound for three weeks straight by this point in time, only a twinge of sickly paleness giving away old Miss Yinn's current state. Old Miss Yinn, despite the terrible condition of herself, still wanted to have the farm become a reality and therefore appointed her only child, now mature enough to burden the responsibility, to carry it out as the new contractor- as Old Yinn was not naïve to the situation. Not even two days after signing off the contract to her daughter was the older woman transferred to a nearby hospital, due to suffering from a sudden infection of the lungs, and would remain there for the rest of her days, as her capable offspring set off to honour the decades-long will.

               Even though she had been to Piorhik "Farm" many times in the past with their mother, it still felt very foreign and empty to be there now without her headstrong parent calling out various orders and suggestions for improvements to the place, and Aiken kept finding themself peering over her shoulder and out windows for any sign of Old Yinn; surprising everyone with a great big grin and a coy response in regard to her health issues...but naturally, there were no surprises nor grins that cool Wednesday morning. The sky above was splotchy with grey and darker grey clouds slowly rolling over the long fields and sparse pine trees in a distance, bringing with it the scent of oncoming rain and the electrifying feeling of an approaching storm. It was the type of weather that ignited a strange sense of nostalgia or Deja vu in the young woman, something that always happened with windy and gloomy days, somehow making them more barrable to push through- though that was not the case this time around. Aching pains panged deeply within their chest that came back stronger with every heartbeat, her eyes feeling as if they were on fire since waking up earlier, and a nausea had stuck with them since getting out of the car merely ten minutes ago and yet it felt like ten hours had passed already. Aiken had decided to cross her arms over their abdomen in attempts to keep all the negativity from spilling out as she took in the last room that needed to be checked before giving the all clear to continue with construction, that being the meat freezer, where a couple un-gutted cows still hung on hooks by their necks.

               Over the years of visiting many farms to get a good idea of how to renovate a building into one and have it grow into a business all on it's own, one of the few skills Aiken had learned was the lifespan of a cow, from birth to death, via either health or slaughter and taking just one look at the two cows, they could tell that their lives were ended much too soon- even for slaughterhouse standards. 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch' was a decently common proverb used when consulting benefits from any farmland-dependent service, not all cattle will be able to birth more cattle, let along healthy ones, and so killing a parent as soon as they give birth to keep up with demands will always have more risk or drawbacks than to wait and deal with people's complaints. It might have been partly the reason why this particular house was chosen by Old Yinn to take down and make anew with a new purpose, even offering to hire those who worked for the old contractors to work for them, to rebuild a reputation lost to consumer pressure, whereas their services would not fall to anything of the sort. As her brows furrowed at the irrationality of seeing such young dead cows- a sound of hesitant footsteps failing by the doorway caused them to quickly look back to see who, by her guess, had come to collect her verdict, but was instead dumbfounded at who peeked in. It was certainly the very last person they expected to see, having not even crossed the young woman's mind as a possibility.