Chucky’s Tale

Chucky’s Tale

or

Be Careful What You Wish For

By Curious4ever

Nine year old Chucky Chickadee was an only child who lived with his parents on their family chicken ranch. It was a small ranch and they barely sold enough eggs to make ends meet. Chucky knew that if he could only get one of his hens to lay some eggs that would win at the county fair then their little farm would be famous and they could make lots of money. His best hope of winning was with his favorite chicken Henrietta. He had entered her in the past two competitions and the best she had ever done was third place.

It was barely dawn when he had been woken out of a sound sleep by a strange humming sound that he heard outside of his window. It had been a fairly warm week and so he decided to wear just a pair of shorts before heading outside. He silently slipped out the back door and headed towards the chicken coop. A quick look inside ensured him that everything seemed to be normal. There were five small nests on both sides of the coop. He smiled when he saw Henrietta hop out of her nest and walk towards him.

“Hey Henrietta, have you heard any strange noises during the night?”

Henrietta clucked as he reached over and picked her up. Of course he didn’t understand what she was saying but he always spoke to her as if he were having a conversation.

“Yeah I did too. Why don’t you come with me and we will check it out together.”

He carried the hen as he started to walk down a dirt path that went behind the chicken coop. The path led him through a wooded area and the strange humming noise grew louder the further he walked down the path. Soon he came to a large clearing and when he got there he spotted a large egg shaped object floating a few feet off the ground. The noise appeared to be coming from the direction of that object.

A short distance away he spotted a green skinned creature partially trapped under rock. Chucky had never seen a creature like this before and he reasoned that it must be a space alien and the large egg shape object was its ship. It looked like the alien had been near a pile of rocks when the top rock fell down on top of it.

Chucky rushed over and placed Henrietta on the ground as he helped push the rock off the green alien. When the alien stood up Chucky noticed that they were both the same height. They both stood there for about a minute giving each other a puzzled look.

“I’ve never seen anyone like you around here before,” Chucky said.

Even though the alien had no mouth Chucky suddenly heard words that seemed to come from all around him.

“Many gratitudes for your assistance. I was making a quick stop on your large planet when I got trapped. Your gravitational field is stronger than what I am used to and so I was unable to move the object that had fallen on me. Tell me how I may repay you for your assistance.”

“Oh, that’s okay. You don’t have to give me anything. I was just glad that I could help you out.”

“I would still like to give you something for helping me. Tell me what you desire the most.”

“Well if I could wish for anything, the thing I would wish for the most is a chicken that could lay prize winning eggs. I would give anything to win the awards for biggest eggs.”

“I understand, you wish for the biggest eggs.”

“Not just the biggest eggs but also the most eggs. I also want to win the award for highest number of eggs laid in an hour. Those are the two most important medals. But there are others too that I would like to win, like biggest and plumpest hen and most contented.”

Henrietta started to cluck as Chucky told the alien about his wishes.

“Henrietta is our best laying egg but even she can’t lay very many eggs or even very big ones. I want her to be happy but I don’t think she likes to lay eggs. What I really need is a big plump chicken who can lay lots of big eggs. And she’s got to enjoy laying eggs. It’s got to make her happy. Every time she lays an egg she’s got to want to lay even more. That’s the kind of chicken that I wish for. One who is happy and contented to lay lots of big eggs.”

Chucky hoped that he could be heard over the sounds of Henrietta’s clucking. He had never heard her cluck so much around a stranger. The alien looked at them and nodded his head.

“I am sure that I can help you with all of those wishes,” the alien said as he headed for his ship. “Once I am in the lower atmosphere I shall generate a cosmic wave that will allow this to happen. It will require the alteration to several things in your reality but those changes will seem perfectly normal to the other inhabitants of this planet.”

Chucky wasn’t sure what the alien meant by that but he picked up Henrietta and watched as the strange oblong ship started to rise into the air. Soon it got so high that he was no longer able to see it. He was just about to walk away when the entire area was coated by a bright green light. Chucky became very dazed and he lost his grip on Henrietta as he fell unconscious to the ground.

When Chucky finally opened his eyes he wasn’t sure how long he had been lying on the ground unconscious. He sat up and looked around.

“Henrietta! Where are you Henrietta?”

No matter where he looked he couldn’t spot his favorite hen.

“She must have headed back to her coop. I need to go there and make sure that she’s safe.”

Getting to his feet he felt a little wobbly and his legs felt a little weak. He looked down and was very surprised at what he saw.

“That’s funny, why do my legs look so strange?”

As he looked at his legs he couldn’t help but notice that they seemed to be shorter than normal. And they were also skinnier and a different color.

“That’s so weird. If I didn’t know better I would say that those are chicken legs.”

As he started to walk down the path he found that he wasn’t able to walk as fast as he normally did.

“I can’t believe how much my feet hurt. It feels like my shoes are too tight.”

His feet continued to hurt him as he walked down the path. Finally after a few minutes he came to a stop and was just about to take off his sneakers when they suddenly burst open and three long toes came shooting out of it. As they continued to grow he could see another toe begin to grow out of the back of his foot. All the toes had tiny little claws on the end and all the toes had the same odd color as his thin legs.

“What the….?  What’s happened to my feet. Those don’t look like my feet. Those look like chicken feet.”

It was true, by now Chucky’s legs and feet looked more like they belonged to a chicken and not a boy. He tried to walk down the path again but he wasn’t used to walking with such odd looking feet. He found that it was taking him longer to travel back down the path.

“I can’t understand why my feet and legs have changed so much. I can’t have anyone see me looking like this.”

As he continued to walk he had a very odd feeling below the waist. His shorts suddenly felt too tight on him and they were pressing against his body. He thought about taking them off but then that would have meant that he would be walking around outside with no clothes on. So he tried to take his mind off of the uncomfortable feeling down there as he walked down the path.

He grimaced as his shorts became tighter and tighter and then suddenly they began to rip open at the seams. Before he could do anything about it his shorts burst off his body into tiny pieces.

“Oh no!” Chucky wailed as he looked at the scattered pieces of clothing on the ground. Once free of his shorts it felt like the bottom part of his body was beginning to expand. Looking down he was shocked to see his rear end get larger and larger. As it grew he could see something beginning to sprout out of the lower half of his body. He reached down and felt something very familiar starting to cover him from the waist down.

“These feel like tiny little feathers. And they seem to be getting bigger. This is horrible. Look how far out my butt is sticking out. And are those tail feathers beginning to grow back there?”

It was true, as Chucky continued to look down at his body he could see that from the waist down his body was beginning to look more and more like a chicken. Below his smooth chest he was now covered completely in light brown feathers. He even had a tail of brown feathers.

“Someone please make this stop,” he wailed out. But there was nobody around to hear his plea.

He felt so embarrassed as he continued to walk back. He was only a little shorter than when he started off the day but below the waist he now had the body of a brown feathered chicken. He figured that if he still had his human legs and feet that he could have been back home by now but it seemed that chickens were not very fast walkers.

“This has all got to be the fault of that alien creature that I helped. But why would he do this to me? I didn’t ask to become a chicken. I only asked to win some awards at the fair.”

His trip back home seemed to be taking forever and it didn’t help things when he would occasionally stop and start to scratch the ground with his feet. He didn’t know why he felt the need to do it but the urge was too powerful to resist.

The walk that had originally taken him fifteen minutes to walk was now taking him almost an hour to walk back.  He was relieved when he finally spotted the chicken coop.

“At last I’m almost back home.”

Before he went to the house he decided to check out the chicken coop in hopes of finding Henrietta. He opened the gate and entered the enclosure where the chickens were fed once they left the coop. It was a safe and secure place for them since the entire area was surrounded by chicken wire. Once inside the enclosure he closed the gate behind him.

“Got to make sure I close the gate or else some of the chickens might try to get out.”

He looked around the enclosure but he could see no sign of his favorite pet chicken. But he did notice a few small changes to the area.

“Hmm, I never noticed how much hay we have spread all over the ground out here. It actually feels kind of nice under my feet.”

As he scratched the ground with his feet he looked at the door that led into the chicken coop.

“That’s funny, the small door into the chicken coop looks bigger than I remember it. I don’t remember pa making that door bigger.”

As he stared at the door he had a very queasy feeling down below. He felt an intense pressure beginning to build near his posterior. At first he thought that he had to poop but it wasn’t that kind of a feeling. It was one that he had never felt before. He started to grimace as the pressure continued to build. Then when it felt like he could contain himself no longer he felt a giant feeling of release and he suddenly felt much better. He thought he heard something fall nearby and he looked to the right and left but didn’t see anything.

He was about to look around some more but then he suddenly felt that queasy feeling again. He went through the same painful experience as before and just like before the uneasy feeling suddenly disappeared and once again he heard the sound of something landing nearby.

He reached up and started to scratch his head.

“I don’t understand that strange feeling I keep getting. Hmm, that’s odd, why do my fingers feel so funny?”

He lowered his hand from his head and that’s when he noticed that this hand was now completely covered in feathers. There were so many feathers at the end of his arm that he couldn’t even see his hand. He looked over at his other hand and saw that it looked the same. Even worse than that was the fact that the feathers seemed to be continuing to sprout of his arms.

He held out both arms and stared in horror as he watched them slowly begin to transform into a pair of feathery wings.

“No, no, no. Not wings! I don’t want wings!”

As the fear began to swell up inside of him he had that queasy feeling again/ He was now more determined than ever to figure out what was causing these strange feelings. He felt the uneasy feeling move inside the lower half of his body. When he felt the sudden release he turned around as far as he could and that’s when he noticed a large egg coming out of the bottom rear part of his body. And what made it even worse was that he saw two other large eggs on the ground behind him.

“Where did those come from? I know those eggs weren’t there when I first came in here. Oh no, don’t tell me that I laid them. I just laid three giant eggs. This is terrible!”

As he waved his arms around in panic he couldn’t help but notice that they were looking more and more like wings. Not only did they look like wings but now the feathers were starting to sprout out of his chest.

“What the cluck!” he shouted as he watched the feathers cover his chest. His torso seemed to shrink as his head moved closer to his chicken body. When the changes finally stopped he was now a large brown feathered chicken from the neck down. The only human feature that he still had left was his head.

“Oh no, my body, it’s almost all completely chicken. With these wings there is no way that I can unlock the gate and get out of here. I’m trapped in the chicken enclosure.”

At that moment he heard the gate open and when he looked towards it he saw his father walk into the enclosure. His father walked over to him and then stopped and looked down at him.

“What are you doing out here? You should be inside,” his father said.

“I’m sorry dad. I don’t know why this is happening to me. I helped an alien and now I’ve turned into a chicken.”

As he spoke he felt that queasy feeling again and before he knew it he laid another egg. His father smiled.

“Good girl. But save some of those eggs for the fair. You’re our best laying hen and I expect you to win several medals this year.”

“What are you talking about dad? I am not your best laying hen. I’m your son Chucky.”

He flapped his wings as another egg popped out of him. He hoped that would be the last one but a few seconds later he laid another one.

“These eggs keep coming out of me. I can’t seem to stop laying them. You’ve got to help me.”

His father bent down and picked up an egg.

“This is one of your best ones yet. We should definitely win a prize with you this year.”

Chucky’s spirits lifted a little bit when he heard that.

“Oh? You really think so? I mean yeah, it does look pretty good. I kinda like how it… it…”

He shook his head a little.

“No, I shouldn’t be thinking of eggs. Why aren’t you listening to me? I’m telling you that I’m your son. I’m not a chicken.”

At that moment a brown haired boy about 9 years old walked into the enclosure. He was wearing Chucky’s clothes but Chucky had never seen him before.

“I saw you coming to the coop dad. Is everything all right?”

Chucky’s dad placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and smiled.

“Yes Henry, everything is fine. I noticed that Clucky was out of the coop and so I came here to put her back inside. Since I’ve been here she’s already laid a few very nice eggs. Here, look at the latest one.”

He handed the egg to Henry and the boy smiled.

“This is great dad. Clucky is sure to win all the medals if she keeps laying eggs like this.”

“Who are you?” Chucky asked. “And why are you wearing my clothes? I’m dad’s son, not you. What did he call you? Henry? I don’t know anyone named… wait, if I have become a chicken then maybe Henrietta has become a boy. You must be Henrietta. You’re now living my life and I’m living yours. I didn’t ask for this to happen. Why don’t any of you notice that I have a human head? I’m not like the other chickens.”

“It’s a good thing the fair allows us to enter hybrid chickens, otherwise Clucky would never be able to compete with the normal chickens.”

“Yes, she may look a little different from the other chickens but she sure can cluck like them,” Chucky’s dad said as he gently tapped him on the rear end.

“Come on girl, get into the coop. Feeding time isn’t for another few hours.”

“A few more hours? But I’m hungry now. Oh, okay I can see that it makes no sense to argue with you. You can’t understand a word that I’m saying.”

His dad swatted him a little harder on the rump and Chucky started towards the chicken coop. He went up the ramp and entered the coop by the large opening. When he got inside he couldn’t get over the smell. He had spent time in here before when he collected the eggs but he didn’t remember it smelling like this.

“That’s funny. I always thought this place had a really horrible smell. But it actually smells pretty nice. It smells kinda homey in here.”

He walked past nine small nests with smaller chickens sitting in them. They didn’t seem to be surprised or upset at seeing him there. At the end of the coop was a very large nest. He kept walking to that nest almost as if by instinct. When he finally got to it he stepped into it.

“Mmmm, this feels nice,” he said as he sat down.  “Hey, why am I sitting in this nest? I’m supposed to be in my bedroom, not the chicken coop. The coop is for chickens. I’m not a chicken.”

He was about to stand up but then he wiggled down a little further into the nest.

“Well there is no rush to get out of here. I can’t believe how comfy this nest is. It feels even more comfortable than my bed. I bet it can hold lots of eggs. I will just relax here for a little while before I go back outside.”

He couldn’t get over how comfortable and relaxed he felt. The longer he sat there the more contented he became. He soon felt so relaxed that he became very sleepy and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Finally he started to fall asleep and the first dream that he had was about when he was a younger chicken and had just laid his first egg. He felt so overjoyed about his accomplishment and he couldn’t wait to lay his next one. He had several more dreams after that but in each dream it was always about him laying eggs and the feeling of happiness that he had whenever he did it.

In his final dream he was at the local fair and he was just being awarded his fifth and final medal. This one was for being the most productive hen at the fair. All the people were cheering and they were all cheering for him and his wonderful eggs. He was extremely overjoyed that he had managed to win every medal in the poultry division.

He finally began to awaken from that dream when he felt the queasy feeling again but this time it was stronger than before. He could feel something moving slowly inside of him and he had to push extra hard to get it to move. As he pushed he could finally feel it moving closer to its destination. With one giant push he could feel it slowly move out of him.

When the ordeal was over he felt a wave of euphoria pour through his body. He had never experienced anything like this before in his life and he felt so happy and jubilant. He clucked very loudly and flapped his wings as he stood up and looked down. Staring down he saw the largest egg he had ever seen in his life. The egg looked so big and beautiful and he felt an intense feeling of pride and accomplishment.

“Wow! Look at that! Do you see what I just did?” he shouted out joyfully to the other hens. “Isn’t that the largest and prettiest looking egg that you have ever seen? I did that! Me! All by myself!”

He had never been so happy before in his life and he couldn’t take his eyes off the big egg. In his eyes it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and it made him feel so happy and contented knowing that it had come out of him. As he cheerfully looked down at it he felt a hand on his head. Looking up he saw Henry looking down and smiling.

“Oh, I didn’t see you come in. I was so busy laying this egg that I didn’t notice what was going on around me.”

“Good girl Clucky. Keep laying eggs like that and you are sure to win all the medals in the egg-laying contest this year. Yep, all of the medals.”

Clucky became very excited and started to flap his wings.

“That’s great. I always wanted to win medals in that contest. But why do you keep calling me Clucky?  My name’s Clucky not Clucky. No, wait, that doesn’t sound right. Or does it? It does kinda sound familiar. Cluck, cluck, Clucky. Yes I think you are correct.”

“You’re the best chicken a boy could ever want,” Henry said.

“Oh? Do you really think so? I do like it when you praise me like that. And isn’t that a fantastic egg that I just laid? Cluck. I bet you that if I tried that I could lay an even bigger one. I can’t wait to lay another one. Cluck. Laying eggs makes me feel so very, very  happy. All I want to do is lay lots and lots of big beautiful eggs. Win lots of medals. Cluck, cluck, cluck.”

Henry held out his hand and opened it. Clucky clucked happily when he saw that the boy had a handful of birdseed in the palm of his hand. He lowered his head and began to eat the tiny seeds.

“Mmm, tasty. More, more. I love this food. Cluck, cluck. And when I am done eating I want to lay lots and lots of eggs. Cluck, cluck, cluck.”

Clucky suddenly realized that even though she had the face of a boy that she was really a girl chicken. She knew that boy chickens could not lay eggs. And even if they could that none of them could lay as many or as big as the ones that she laid. As she looked up at the young boy who was her owner she immediately felt a strong attachment to him. She loved the way that he praised her and her eggs and she felt so happy and contented to lay eggs for him.

The boy had a devilish grin on his face as Clucky continued to eat.

“That’s right Chucky, just keep eating. Grow nice and plump and lay lots of big eggs. After all that’s what you wanted, a big plump chicken who is happy and contented to lay lots of big eggs. You got exactly what you wished for and so did I. I think you’ll find that you will enjoy being a chicken, just as much as I’m enjoying being a boy. It’s a good thing that alien could also speak chicken. Hehehe.”

The end

For now