Chapter 7: Crucial Memories

Mac remembered the smell like it was just yesterday. It helped that Alastor was causing that same smell, cooking his eggs. Scrambled he liked them, and laid out on a platter for him to eat.

Alastor, the bulldog in which Mac now considered her mentor, had found her on the same day that had caused Mac's turn. The same smell of eggs was in the room, the same happy feeling consumed her. Mac lay on the grass, remembering that fateful day…

Mac turned the eggs off the stove, angered at her daughter Darleen for being so careless.

"You do'n do this with Mammy's eggs!" Mac said furiously. Then came the knock of at the door.

"Ooh, that mus' be Ginger. Com' on, Darleen, Sara, Gerald, Popsy, Molly! Off ya go to Aunt Babs!" She called out to her children, filled with happiness about the day ahead.

"But, mother, why must we not come? Why must we go to Aunt Babs, what does she have in store-" Gerald was the only boy of Mac's children, an extremely intelligent young male with a VERY British accent.

"Off ya go!" Mac ordered, and Gerald and his sisters scuttled huffishly out the door, as Mac greeted Ginger, Rocky, Bunty, Maria and Paula at the door to her homestead. Maria was a very beautiful chicken, that had modeled herself after a picture she had once seen on a billboard of Grace Kelly. Her friend Paula was quite the opposite, she was a mud-obsessed bird with a brain of seed.

"Hi, Mac!" Ginger greeted her brightly. "Ready to go and see the show?" she asked happily.

"Yep," Mac replied, a smile wide across her face. "I'll jus' lock up de house and we'll be off!"

Mac shuffled her way outside, adjusting her glasses and locking the door with her keys moulded from various brands of cheese.

"Right! Let's be off!" Rocky said, his arm around his wife Ginger. They began to walk toward Mac's gate, but she suddenly slapped her head stupidly.

"Dam! I lef' my picnic basket inside. Do ya mind waitin' just for a second while I ge' it?" Mac asked, feeling a bit lame.

"Na, go ahead, babe. We'll just wait by the gate," Rocky assured her.

"OK, thank ya. I'll be out in a minute."

Mac ran up to her house, and opened it. She heard the loud laughs of Maria and Paula, obviously excited about the event. She quickly grabbed her basket from underneath the sink and locked the door for the second time that day, and sprinted to the gate. Her friends were gone.

Mac looked around.

"Allo?" she called loudly. But her friends were nowhere in sight. Mac chuckled to herself. They must've been hiding, playing a game.

"Al'right…not the perfec' time for 'ide and go seek. Come out, we're gonna miss the show!" Mac called. Her face suddenly heated up and she turned bright pink. She didn't realise that several chickens were now staring at her, obviously wondering what the hell she was on about. She gave the staring chickens a weak smile and looked around once more.

There they were…but what were they doing? Running…running toward her? Or…

Away from her. Mac swore she could hear little giggles. Her eyes narrowed underneath her large glasses, and her face twisted into an ugly, villainous frown.

Mac began to walk. She had no idea what she was doing for anger had consumed her. Her vision seemed shaky…she did not see the path ahead of her. She didn't know where she was going…what she was doing and why she was doing it, but she walked on.

A million thoughts ran through her head, each as worse as the next. Are they just joking around? Will they be waiting for me around this corner with a sorry and a hug? Did they perhaps see something that made them run?

That was probably it. They might've been running from a dog or a hawk.

But they were laughing. She swore she heard them laughing, giggling. Would they be laughing if they were being chased by a giant hawk or sharp-toothed dog?

No. They were embarrassed to see me. Embarrassed to be with me.

My friends.

Mac did not realise she had come to the top of the Chikin Park Northern Hill. Chickens were laying down or sitting against trees everywhere, watching the destruction of the once infamous Tweedy's Chicken Farm. Mac could see Mr and Mrs Tweedy, her arch nemeses in the distance, watching as their home was destroyed by a crane and a bulldozer.

The sight should've made Mac happy, but it didn't. Everyone around her cheered, and all she could do was feel the two single tears spill from each eye.

She was alone. She was ugly, unwanted and alone.

The sad thoughts turned to dark thoughts.

They must be taught a lesson, they must see what it is like to feel these feelings of utter and complete rejection.

If they were my friends, they wouldn't do this.

They wouldn't laugh.