This story came into my head last night before I went to sleep, and I just had to write it. Hope you like it.
"All right, what?" This came from a curious and slightly confused John Gage as he was changing into a clean uniform after a run.
Chet and Marco sat on the bench opposite Johnny in the locker room. They exchanged amused glances.
"You two have been making clucking noises at Mike all day." Johnny stated. "And every time you do, he turns beet red. Now obviously me and Roy have missed something because the rest of you," he motioned to Chet and Marco, and to Hank, who was standing nearby, "seem to understand the joke behind it."
Chet glanced around the room, making sure Mike wasn't around.
"Relax," Marco said, catching on. "He's in the kitchen, making dinner."
Chet grinned. "You guys remember that run the engine had last shift, the fire at that farm?"
Johnny and Roy nodded.
"Well," Chet continued. "After the fire was out, the farmer saw that his property was pretty badly damaged, so he decided to take his animals to a nearby farm while he got things fixed up. Cap suggested that we help him."
Chet paused for a minute and snickered as he thought about what had happened next. "Me and Cap went to help get the cows together, Marco and the farmer went to the barn to get the horses, and Mikey went to the chicken coop to round up the chickens."
Chet laughed and rubbed his hands together with glee, then plunged on. "Those chickens were pretty riled up and they were angry. Soon as Mike stepped into that pen, those chickens started attacking him. They were all over him!"
Johnny's jaw dropped.
Chet laughed and continued. "Mike was trying to get away from them, and at the same time trying to round them up, then—whooosh!—he slipped and fell face first into the mud and…who knows what else, and once he was down, those chickens really went at him."
Roy's expression now matched Johnny's.
"Biting and screeching and flapping and pecking…" Chet was saying. "And Mike was kicking and yelling and rolling trying to get away from them…oh, it was a great sight, you guys shoulda been there."
"I wish we had been," Johnny replied in between bouts of hysterical laughter.
"Well, Mike finally got away from the chickens," Chet went on. "But Cap wouldn't let him on the engine while covered in all that muck. So Mike had to strip down to his underwear while we hosed him off—me and Marco were laughing so hard, we could barely hold the hose."
By this point, Johnny, Roy, Marco, and Cap were all laughing hysterically.
"But that's not the best part." Chet insisted. "Get this. Mike was standing there, dripping wet, in nothing but his boxers, and the farmer comes up to apologize for the whole thing. As part of his apology, he gave Mike one of the chickens!"
"What did Mike do with it?" Johnny asked incredulously.
Before Chet could answer, Mike poked his head in the door. "Hey, guys, dinner's ready."
The five men followed the engineer into the kitchen and sat down at the table. A delicious aroma filled the air, as Mike set the dinner he had prepared on the table.
Johnny's jaw dropped once again as he saw what it was—a steaming platter of fried chicken!
Chet looked over at Johnny and Roy and grinned. "That's what he did."