Pigs With Parachutes
You are in a farmhouse in Kentucky and you hear the rooster crowing as
you doze off back to sleep. It's
six a.m. as your alarm clock rings reminding you it's time for breakfast.
You open the shutters and the sun is beginning to rise full of warmth and
light. Emanating from the kitchen
is the smell of omelets, warm biscuits and fresh orange juice all cooking up for
your early morning breakfast.
It's time to head off to work in the farmyard.
Butterflies are fluttering past you and the smell of flowers like
honeysuckle and roses make you take in the deepest breath.
It's a lazy summer day for the animals as the cows graze among the
clovers and the horses are fed their morning hay.
The chickens can be heard scratching the ground for their corn and the
wild birds whistle a beautiful tune. The
strawberry fields are ripe and ready for picking as you pull one from the vine
and taste it's refreshing flavor.
Across the vast cornfield is a gated mud yard where the pigs are
frolicking in the wet mud. As they are fed their morning meal, I id my usual pig count
because we had come up short three pigs the week before.
After the count was done, the same three pigs seemed to be missing again.
I quickly closed the gate and headed back through the corn- field and up
the stairs to the farmhouse. I
dialed the local Sheriff's office and told him what had happened.
He reassured me that the three elusive pigs would show up soon and for me
not to worry. So I hopped on my
tractor and finished plowing the fields.
I planted pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, corn, lettuce, blueberries,
strawberries and large orange trees. We
lived off our farm with eggs from the chickens, milk from the cows, fruits and
vegetables from our garden and orange juice from our orange trees.
Our horses worked the fields and our pigs I guess you could say were just
there for our enjoyment. All they
had to do all day was eat and play in the mud.
Sometimes the warm sun would dry the mud to their skins and you couldn't
help but chuckle every time you looked at them.
The days go by quick on the farm because there is so much to do.
I decided to take a walk to check on the cornfield and the scarecrow that
was babysitting the corn. He was
dressed in shorts and tennis shoes and was quite a sight standing tall and all
alone in the cornfield. I had a
small lounge chair that I liked to lie on and daydream in the field next to the
scarecrow. I would lie on this
chair for hours dreaming about all the farm animals and how lucky I was to be
able to enjoy my wonderful farm life.
A warm breeze blew through the cornhusks and made a light whispering
sound. As I looked up high into the
sky a blue balloon glided slowly my direction.
It was small at first but gradually became larger and larger.
As it drifted in the open air lower and lower there was something
familiar about this unusual balloon. Suddenly
two more balloons appeared next to each other all heading my direction. I couldn't believe my eyes!
They weren't balloons after all, they were parachutes and hanging from
each parachute were all three of my pigs! I
wiped my eyes for a better look as they were now landing in my cornfield.
I ran through the field trying to find them row after row but they were
nowhere to be found. I ran back to the farmhouse and called the Sheriff but he had
no word yet on the pigs. I hurried
down the steps and over to the mud yard, threw open the gate and there were all
three pigs lying fast asleep in the mud. I
quietly closed the gate and walked away puzzled by the days events.
When I glanced back at the pig yard, the three pigs were suddenly awake
and chomping on three large ears of fresh corn.
How did they get the corn? And where were their parachutes?
Did I dream all this and if I did, how did they get the large ears of
corn into their pen? Better yet,
how did they open the mud yard gate? I
continued walking scratching my head and thinking out loud.
"Pigs With Parachutes" I wonder who would believe me?
Copyright
1997 by Author Patti Tricoli
