Addicted

Chapter 4: 2 Dollars

Shane awoke the next morning to the sounds of scratches on the floor beneath him. His eyes popped open to be met with the face of a big black chicken. He could hear Maree singing in the kitchen and the clatter of pots and pans. After a few minutes of starring down the chicken in front of him, Shane sat up and scratched his head in confusion.

"Ladies," sing-songed Maree, "veggies are done!" The hens clucked and flapped happily as they entered the kitchen, as if they understood what was going on. Shane joined the hens, shuffling towards the kitchen. He stood at the entry, eyes half open, still scratching his head in confusion. "Good morning, Rooster," chimed Maree, still using a sing-song voice, smiling at Shane.

"Why are the chickens inside?" he asked looking at the four hens on the kitchen floor.

"It's Loula's hatch-day. We're having some steamed veggies and fresh fruit to celebrate." Her smile was warm and happy, her blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun. She was still wearing the jersey she had fallen asleep in, and her legs were still bare. There were four small saucers on the floor, piled with chopped vegetables and fruit pieces, a small bowl of water sitting at the end of the kitchen beside the laundry room. Maree busied herself at the stove as Shane took a seat at the kitchen table. When Maree turned to Shane, she carried two plates of bacon and eggs, setting one of them in front of Shane. She then sat on the floor amongst the chickens, one hand trying to hold the plate and the other pushing the chickens away from it as the pecked at her, successfully stealing her bacon. "Monsters," she whispered as they all began to peck at the stolen bacon.

Once she had finished with her eggs, she set her fork down and reached for each chicken. Giving them all peck kisses on the top of their heads and whispering, "You're my favorite pizza place," to each one. She took a particularly longer time with the big black chicken, making sure to give her a few extra kisses and small squeezes as the hen clucked happily. When the chickens had lost interest in their food and Maree had sang happy hatch-day to Loula, putting a cute little party hat on her as well, Maree opened the front door. She stepped out first, allowing the chickens to follow her in a line towards the chicken coop, Shithead bounding from the grass to herd them better. As she closed and locked the coop, she gave each chicken another kiss and then once to the dog, allowing him to lick the side of her face in turn.

Returning to the house, audibly shivering, she ran in place, trying to warm her bare feet and naked legs. Shane laughed at her as he went to greet her at the door. Maree locked in an embrace with Shane to warm up, chattering her teeth loudly. "Hey," she whispered looking up at him. "Are my hands cold?" she asked, putting her hands up the back of Shane's shirt.

"Ah, yes!" he shrieked, pulling her arms away from him. He looked in her eyes as she laughed, a shine there that he hadn't seen in a while. "You really are the weird chicken lady, huh." It was more of a question than a statement. "They're like your children."

She smiled up at him still letting out little giggles. "Yep, they're my babies," she said soft and sad like. "They're my reason for getting up every day. I found my purpose when I bought Shell, when she was just a tiny chick." Shane noticed a glow about her as she talked, a similar glow he'd seen when he introduced Maree to Charlie, his favorite hen in the whole world, and he did consider her to be like his baby."

"Do you have a favorite? Like how parents say they don't have a favorite child, but they actually do?" he asked his eyes following her as she cleaned up the mess that the chickens left on the kitchen floor.

She nodded, then looked like she was thinking. "Well, not exactly, I think. Shell was my first lady, so she'll always have a special place in my heart, and Jenny was such a sickly baby, I nursed her back to health, and she spent her first few months living inside with me, so she also has a special place. Then there's Loula and she was my second lady, but she was my first brown chicken. Deborah though, she is a handful sometimes. She doesn't like to do any kind of exercise, she just likes to brood all day and it drives me crazy, it's so hard to get eggs from her. She'll hoard six or seven of them and I have to physically fight her to get them. It reminds me of myself, so she's like that one daughter that your mom curses you with. By saying 'I hope you have one that's just like you.'" Maree smiled pointing to her tattoo on her forearm. "That's why I got her here. I needed a little reminder that though I have no children of my own, I'm a chicken mama, and there are lives that depend on me to come home at the end of the day."