The Path to Piney Meadows Page 18

  As Anna hung up, she sighed, then walked to the kitchen window and stared at Chad’s empty chicken coop. The chickens had seemed healthy and active last night when he’d put them into the coop, and they seemed fine now if they were jumping between the handlebars and the basket as Rebecca had just told her. She hoped the only reason Chad would be taking his chickens to Zebediah was to get their wings clipped, although that would be a strange thing to do in the evening, as it wasn’t an emergency but maintenance. She probably should have shown him how to do that, but she’d completely forgotten.

  Instead of going back to her homework, she continued to stare at the empty chicken coop. Despite his strange ways, she felt an odd fondness for Chad. He was a very hard worker and had made some very good decisions for the factory. Already Bart had noticed increased business and increased productivity. As people who worked at the factory became more familiar with him, everyone worked very hard for him, and they seemed to like him, even though he was not one of them. He was very kind-hearted, both to the people who worked for him and to his chickens.

  Thinking of chickens, Anna smiled. She couldn’t imagine what would go through Chad’s mind when he saw the thousands of chickens at Henry’s farm, when he was going through so much work to care for only two. Maybe, since they were going to be right on the farm, not only could he buy a few dozen eggs to make his delicious deviled eggs, he could also buy a couple of freshly butchered roasters. Since he liked to cook, he should have no trouble.

  But that was going to be tomorrow. For today, she had to make sure she got all her homework done; because tomorrow evening, she would be at Henry’s farm.

  “You look like you’re doing just fine with the gears. Didn’t I tell you it would change the way you rode a bike?”

  Just because he seemed to suggest it, Anna thought she wanted to go a little faster, so she switched gears as Chad had shown her, since they were on a flat, even road. “Ja. This is a very nice way to ride a bike. It is easier to peddle, for sure.”

  “The point is to find your optimal cadence, which is that speed of peddling that’s just right for you. Instead of peddling faster or slower, switch gears and make the bike work for you, instead of you working for the bike.”

  “I think I understand what you are saying. This will take time and practice for me. But it is very strange to be wearing a helmet while I am riding. No one else I know does this.”

  “You know the rules. No helmet, no bicycle. No exceptions.” He turned to her; one hand released the handlebar, and he knocked on top of his own helmet. “If something happens, I don’t want to be shoveling your brains off the side of the road.”

  The thought was so disgusting that she didn’t want to reply.

  She glanced at Chad while he rode beside her. For both of them, the helmets he had bought exactly matched the colors of the bicycles. He’d called it a fashion statement. Then when she said she didn’t need to have fashion, he said he would take her bicycle apart and send it back to the store if she ever rode without the helmet.

  For this, she took him very seriously. Besides, even without his graphic description of possible head injuries, she would have worn the helmet with only his request. It hadn’t taken long, and she’d very much come to like riding this new kind of bicycle.

  As they continued down the road to get to Henry’s farm, Anna smiled as she watched Chad on his bicycle. He was much more agile on the bicycle than he had been on the snowshoes. After only a few days, he started doing tricks and riding for short distances on one tire. She’d even seen him balance on just the front tire, something she’d never seen a person do. “You are very good at riding your bicycle. How do you do those things?”

  He grinned, pulled on the handlebars, and jerked backward so he once again balanced on the rear tire for a few dozen yards and then bumped back down. “This is nothing. I used to do stunt riding on a BMX when I was younger. I paid for my first year of college winning competitions and through sponsorships. Then I had to get serious and study, so the bike got parked, and the next generation took over with bigger and better stunts. I don’t regret giving it up. It was fun while it lasted.”

  Earlier, while they were in the town, he’d ridden his bike on the narrow curb, hopped the bike down, and kept going without losing his balance, yet he couldn’t hammer a nail in straight. She would never understand that, except to know that God gave different people different gifts, and sometimes they only made sense in God’s greater perspective. “You must have had a very fancy bicycle to do that, yet you have bought a new bicycle for yourself. Why is this?”

  “I sold the BMX I used for the stunts a long time ago. I had another good bike—not for stunts, but just for regular riding—but someone stole it. Rather than buy a new one and store it all winter, I decided to wait until spring, and I’m glad I did. A bike wouldn’t have fit into my car. It was easier to buy a new one and have it shipped.”

  “If this is the kind of bicycle you are used to, I can see why you did not buy one from Frank’s store. He would never have anything like this. I have never seen a bicycle with gears.”

  “After everyone in the factory took our bikes for a little test run, I have a feeling that Frank’s going to be placing an order for some.”

  Even though the bicycles they rode were probably fairly expensive, she thought he was right. Not only were these bicycles more comfortable to ride, they were also faster, with less effort. Although most people wouldn’t be riding their bicycles like Chad and doing tricks and spins and flips or even riding on one tire. And, because he was not riding smoothly, she doubted he would buy eggs today—they would never stay in his basket. However, she intended to buy eggs. She had a craving for deviled eggs, even without Chad’s secret ingredient.

  “This is fun. Let us go faster.”

  “You’re on. Gear down, and let’s go.”

  Taking advantage of the gears on the bicycles, she’d never gone so fast for so far. Even though they’d left home to allow the same time as usual, they had passed many people on the way to Henry’s farm and arrived very early.

  “Since we are here before everyone, let me show you Henry’s chickens.” She took the basket of Roll Kuchen she’d brought and set it on the table beside the back door. Then instead of walking, she got back on her bicycle and led Chad across the field to the barn.

  Once inside, Chad’s eyes widened like a child looking at a Christmas tree for the first time.

  “There are many chickens, are there not?”

  He sucked in a deep breath, then coughed. “Yeah. I couldn’t have imagined this. There’s got to be over a thousand chickens. I guess they can’t hose out a barn like a backyard coop. It stinks in here.” Anna clenched her lower lip with her teeth to keep herself from snickering. The smell of Henry’s chicken barn was nothing compared to a cow barn. Even worse was George Rempel’s pig barn.

  Chad began to squat down to touch one of the many chickens strutting around them, but as he reached out, the chickens scattered. Remaining hunkered down, he rested his elbows on his knees. “They don’t seem very tame.”

  “Oba nü. This is a farm. Get up. Let us go. Everyone should be here by now.”

  They hopped back on the bikes and rode back to the yard where people were gathering. They laid the bikes on the grass with the rest and set their helmets down resting on their bicycles. As they walked to join the crowd, Anna pulled her prayer cap out of her purse and put it on, hoping she had it straight and none of her hair was sticking out.

  Chad leaned down to speak softly in her ear. “Which one is the new chicken plucker?”

  Anna turned to him. “Which one? I do not understand your question. The chicken plucker is over there. See it? It is red.”

  “The barrel? What kind of chicken plucker is that?”

  Anna crossed her arms. “It is Henry’s new design. He has made some improvements over his last one, and he says this one is much better.”

  “Oh.”

  She watched him look at H
annah and then back to the chicken plucker. “Please tell me that you did not think we were talking about a person.”

  “Well, yeah, I did.”

  “It would take much too long for a person to pluck a chicken. They must pluck hundreds in a day.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I never thought about it like that. I really was expecting a person. An older lady, actually. Kind of like her.”

  “That is Hannah. Henry’s wife.”

  Henry joined the crowd and motioned them all closer to the chicken plucker. “I would like everyone to look inside, to see how I have changed the spikes to different heights.”

  Anna nudged Chad’s arm. “Come, you must look. Later, when everyone is talking about how it works, you need to know what they are talking about. I have seen this before, in his previous design.”

  She led him to the barrel and watched as he leaned forward to look inside, as instructed.

  His face tightened and he stepped back. “I don’t understand.”

  “You will when you see it in motion.”

  “Motion?”

  Hank from the furniture factory appeared beside Chad. He nudged Chad forward, closer to the barrel of the chicken plucker. “We have all seen this before, you are the only one who has not. So I think you should have the closest view.”

  All around them nodded and stepped aside for Chad to move forward. Soon, everyone pushed closer to make room for Hannah as she approached with a headless chicken, holding it by the legs, upside down.

  With everyone pressed together so more people could see, Anna felt herself get even more squished up beside Chad. When Hannah held the chicken over the barrel, she felt Chad stiffen. Henry started turning a handle, and the barrel started spinning; Hannah turned on the hose, began to spray water into the plucker, and dropped the chicken inside.

  “No . . .” Chad murmured.

  Instead of watching the machine work, Anna looked up to watch Chad. His entire body went ramrod stiff, and his breathing became shallow. He watched for a few rotations as the chicken banged around inside, bumping against all the spikes. Chad’s eyes suddenly squeezed shut. His face paled, and with every thump of the chicken banging around inside the plucker, his face continued to lose color.

  Pressed up against him, she felt him sway.

  She’d never seen a man faint and didn’t want this to be the first time.

  She grabbed his hand, pulled, and stepped back through the crowd. “Chad, step back. Come with me.”

  He gave no resistance as she pulled him away. He opened his eyes, blinked, and looked at her, his eyes completely lacking focus.

  “Thirty-two seconds!” Henry called out. “A new record!”

  At Henry’s voice, Chad looked up to see Henry holding up the limp, headless, featherless chicken, dangling it by one naked wing.

  Chad’s face turned almost white. His body lurched. He gagged and raised one hand to cover his mouth, then swayed.

  “Quickly, sit down. Lean on me.”

  She wrapped her arms around him, but she couldn’t support his weight. She barely kept him from falling as he sank to the ground in under a second, taking nearly all her strength to control his fall to guide him to a sitting position. Fortunately, he landed with his knees raised. He thunked his forehead to his knees, then lifted his arms to cover the back of his head. “I don’t feel very good,” he groaned into his knees. “I think I’m going to throw up.”

  Anna dropped to her knees and reached toward him, but froze before she touched him. She didn’t know what to do, so she gently ran her fingers up and down his forearm. “Breathe deeply,” she murmured. “Count with me. One . . . two . . . three . . .”

  22

  As Chad concentrated on his breathing, the tsunami in his stomach began to ebb to a rolling tidal wave and the ringing in his ears was reduced to a dull roar. Slowly, the white light behind his eyes morphed to a dancing kaleidoscope, the tunnel widened and then faded to the normal black of just having his eyes closed.

  Slowly, the noise echoing through his head calmed to just the voices and movement of the crowd around him, and he became aware of the comforting motion of a hand on his arm, gently stroking back and forth.

  He wondered how long, realistically, it would take before the ground would swallow him up.

  “He is breathing better now,” Anna’s voice came from beside him. “I will stay with him. Go eat, we will come later.” Her hand moved. Then instead of on his arm, he felt Anna rubbing soothing circles on his back.

  He couldn’t believe it. He’d nearly fainted like a woman, except he’d never seen or actually heard of a woman fainting in the last century. He’d also come within a hair’s breadth of losing his lunch. It would not have been a pretty sight.

  In the distance, the voices became silent. Henry’s voice rang out loud and clear, praying first for him and a quick recovery and then asking for a blessing for their meal. Chatter resumed, accompanied by the clicking of spoons and dishes.

  “Chad? Are you going to be alright? I am so sorry. I had no idea. I have now realized that you have never seen such a thing before.”

  All he could think of was Waddles and Blinkie. They had the same color of feathers as the dead chicken dumped into the spike-laced barrel, while it still had feathers.

  His stomach churned again.

  He told himself that Waddles and Blinkie were fine. They were locked up, safe and sound, in their coop in the backyard.

  They were going to get an extra share of chicken chow when he got home, plus a slice of apple, which was their favorite snack. And tonight, he wasn’t going to make them run around the living room and do their little dance before he picked them up to do his reading. Tonight, they were going to get some extra lap time before he put them outside and then sneaked them back into the house after Anna’s bedroom light went out.

  “I’ll never eat chicken again,” he muttered, only half joking. “Is anyone still watching?”

  “No. Everyone is getting food. Some of the mamas look at you every once in a while, but they are leaving you alone until you are ready to get up.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” he mumbled, still not raising his head from his knees. Even though he’d have to get up at some point, for now it was easier to deal with looking like a wuss if he couldn’t see anyone watching him and feeling sorry for him. “I’m first-aid certified. I’ve attended to injuries. Real injuries. Broken arms and broken legs and blood. Even a skull injury, when I worked at the half-pipe.”

  “I know you are not good with tools, but I do not understand how working with half of a pipe could be dangerous.”

  “No.” He shook his head without raising his forehead off his knees. “That’s what they call the track, the structure where you do freestyle BMX biking, with the flips and the jumps. They call it that because of the shape. It’s curved, like half a pipe, cut lengthwise, but on a gargantuan level. You go down one side of the curve to gain momentum and then you launch up the other side, flip yourself on the bike when you clear the edge, somersault with it, spin it, or whatever you’re going to do, then come down, gliding down the curve instead of landing flat, so you don’t fall. Extreme sports can be dangerous, and accidents happen often. I’ve attended to a couple of bad injuries—I used to supervise my local half-pipe as a summer job. I was the only one certified with first-aid training until the ambulance got there when someone hurt themselves. I’ve seen some really awful stuff, but nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

  “Then you are a hero with people who need you, but not so much with animals. It is different.”

  Probably because the animal was already dead.

  His stomach lurched again. He bit his lower lip so he wouldn’t groan out loud. If there were ever a time he wished he had his car, this was it.

  “Are you feeling better now? Can you stand?”

  Even though he didn’t get up, he raised his head to look at Anna, blinking until his eyes adjusted once again to the bri
ght daylight. “This is pretty embarrassing.”

  “Do not worry so much. Everyone is only happy you are not hurt. I will understand if you do not wish to eat, but it is probably a good thing for you to have something to drink.”

  Taking her at her word, Chad cautiously pushed himself to his feet and sucked in a deep breath to clear his head. He didn’t feel as unsteady as he thought he would, so he slowly made his way to the crowd, ready to take his lumps.

  Brian was the first to approach him. Strangely, he hadn’t seen Brian arrive, but then there were a lot of people here, and he’d quickly been escorted to the front of the crowd to be closest to the event of the day.

  Brian rested one hand on his shoulder and guided him away from the crowd, and most important, away from the food table. “Well, City Boy, I have just heard this is your first time to be on a farm. This may not have been the best introduction to what happens to chickens before they become our supper.”

  “That’s okay. I’ve heard that sometimes life’s best lessons are learned the hard way.”

  Brian pulled him farther away from the crowd, many of whom kept glancing over at him. “You were asking me about ways to catch the attention of the ladies. I think you have found a good way, but you should not do this again.”

  Chad lowered his head. He’d never been so embarrassed in his whole life, and he’d done a lot of dumb things. “I don’t plan to,” he muttered. “Believe me, I didn’t do this on purpose.”

  Brian jerked his head toward a circle of ladies. “They are all waiting for you to be alone, so they may ask how you are.”

  “But it’s not any one of them I wanted to be interested. It’s Anna.”

  Anna, who’d steadied him as he sank to the ground like a wet noodle in a rainstorm.