Thank you for the Reviews :)
Title: The Legend of Mallee Ned
Rating: K+
Summary: Young John helping on a farm – what could possibly go wrong?
Notes: The idea for this came from something that really happened when I was young. I picked John over Scott and Virgil, because Scott is a daredevil and it takes a lot to scare Virgil. Set in the summer of 2045, Kansas USA.
Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds, but the memory the real Mallee Ned belongs to me.
The Legend of Mallee Ned
Tracy Farms was the Tracy Family business before Jeff Tracy, with the blessing and support of his father Grant, started to change the family business into Tracy Industries (later known as Tracy Enterprises). Some of the farm managers and the full time farmhands, with their families, lived in the homesteads that came with the farms when the Tracy Family bought the property.
One such family was the McLeod's, Mr McLeod was originally the son of an Australian sheep farmer, who had met his wife while traveling in the US. Mrs McLeod's father managed one of the Tracy family farms and when the couple married the McLeod's took over one of the Tracy Farms homesteads. When Grant Tracy heard Mr McLeod's history, he asked if he wouldn't mind looking after a small flock of Merino sheep as an experiment.
When the Tracy brothers were young (Scott, John and Virgil in particular), and staying with their Grandparents, they always went out with their grandfather when he visited the farms, and the McLeod's were one of their favourite stops in the tour – as Mrs McLeod was one of the best home cooks in the district. John would quite often stay and help her out in the kitchen*, while Scott and Virgil went off with their Grandfather and Mr McLeod to check the farm.
There was one fly in the ointment however, and that was the McLeod's pet ram Mallee Ned. Mallee was what you would call a perfect example of a horned Merino ram, but he was also a perfect example of why you don't leave pet rams, rams and one of his favourite targets was John.
So it was on a bright sunny day, a nine year old John, and his grandfather went to visit the McLeod homestead. John's mother, Lucy, and his brothers, Virgil and Gordon, had come down with colds and John's only big brother, Scott, had stayed behind to help his Grandmother look after them and baby Alan, as his father Jeff was away on business but was due back later that night.
After helping Mrs McLeod in the Kitchen for a while, Mrs McLeod asked, "John, could you be a dear, and feed the chooks and collect the eggs for me?"
"Okay." John agreed and took a basket and a bucket of grain from her.
As John started walk to the chook yard he saw Mr McLeod and his Grandfather, heading in for a coffee, "Watch out for Mallee as you go, son," Mr McLeod said, as John passed him. "The old bugger lurking around the house paddock somewhere."
"I will." John swore, he knew from past encounters the ram didn't like him.
Mallee Ned was lurking around the sheds, looking for something tasty to eat, when he saw the little human they called John walking towards the clucky creatures, the humans called chooks, yard. The boy was alone, which was odd, usually the little human called Scott – who liked jumping on his back and hanging onto his horns until Mallee threw him off – and/or the little human called Virgil – who always smashed a piece of what humans call poly pipe, right between his eyes when got too close to him – would be with him.
Mallee liked to play with John, he liked to listen the little human scream as he charged at him, he liked showing the little human who was boss, and he didn't like it when the other humans or fences got in the way of his fun.
But he was hungry at the moment and the little human was a fair distance away… Wait! Was the little human carrying the bucket of tasty things that usually went to the clucky creatures? If so, he must have it, the clucky creatures didn't need to have such a treat.
The little human spotted Mallee as he charged toward him, and started running to the clucky creature's yard, where the little human managed to get into the yard and pull the gate shut before Mallee could catch him.
Mallee sorted in frustration – there was no way he was going to let this little human win or the clucky creatures eat his treat. With that thought in mind, Mallee backed up a few steps, then charged at the gate.
John thought he was home free once he got into the chook yard, all he had to was feed the chooks, collect the eggs and wait for Mallee to saunter off.
BANG!
John jumped when he heard the noise behind him, he turned around to see Mallee making a second charge at the gate.
BANG!
Well John knew the ram was crazy, but he didn't think it was crazy enough to try and break down a gate to get to him.
BANG!
The silly bugger should know it's futile to try break down that gate, right?
BANG!
John started to call for his grandpa and Mr McLeod, hoping they could stop the ram before the ram knocked himself senseless.
BANG!
John started to scream for his grandpa and Mr McLeod, when he saw that the gate was starting to buckle under the constant barrage.
BANG!
BANG!
CLATTER!
The gate gave way.
Later that evening…
"It's not funny, Scott!" John snapped at his oldest brother, who was sitting on the back porch of their grandparent's house, holding a toddler Alan in his arms. "I was lucky the bastard was more interested in the feed bucket than me!"
"Language, Johnny," Scott warned, looking down at Alan. "Little pitchers and all." He looked back up at John, "What happened to old Mallee Ned anyway?" he asked.
"The old bugger will be kept with the other rams for now on," John replied. "If he wasn't such a good breeding ram he probably would be chops by now."
"Hmm… I'm going to miss that old guy."
"I'm not, that ram is a menace," John snapped back.
"Boys your father's home, it's now time for dinner." Grandma Tracy called out.
"Say John," Scott asked, as he carried Alan inside. "What would you prefer to do, eat Grandma's cooking or have Mallee chase after you?"
"Can I see what she has made us before I answer?" John replied.
Later that night…
A sniffling Lucy Tracy was putting a sleepy Alan to bed, when she heard Alan mumble four new words, two of which were okay, but the other two…
Lucy stormed down the stairs to where Grant, Ruth and her oldest two sons were filling in Jeff on the day's events. "Okay which of you geniuses are responsible for teaching Alan the words 'bugger' and 'bastard'!?" she demanded.
John wished he was facing the ram again.
* John and Alan are the only Tracy Brothers that can actually cook anything they want, John learnt from his mother and people like Mrs McLeod, Alan learnt from John. As for the other brothers, Scott is the king of breakfast, Virgil is the king of the grill and Gordon can make anything that doesn't need heat.
Notes: Mallee Ned was a real pet ram from my childhood and yes he did bash in a door of a bird aviary (which was being used for chickens) to get at a bowl of wheat (which is bad for sheep, btw, it was put in there so he wouldn't get it), no one was in the birdcage at the time thankfully. A handsome ram, but a bunting bastard at the same time – you had to check to see where the ram was so you could get some things done around the house paddock.