Once upon a time, three eggs found themselves in a small hollow lined with leaves near a forest road. You might think they were together because laid by a single mother, bird, snake or turtle, but in fact they had had very different adventures to reach the place where they lay shell to shell on the soft cup scooped in the duff.
The one with the brown shell was called Hardy. "This place is like the nest where my hen laid me. I remember how warm it was under her big, feathered bottom. However that time didn't last long. A hand with very quick fingers reached into the dark place where I was resting quietly, grasped me quickly and pulled me out. My hen gave a short squawk and let me go. I was balanced on top of a lot of other eggs just like myself.
The tiny blue egg called Cheep asķed, "Were they your brothers or sisters?"
Hardy said, no, they perhaps were distant cousins but they didn't have time to find out the connection because soon they were all put one by one on spoons and deposited in a pot of boiling water.
"What is that like?" asked Cheep in a small voice as if guessing it wasn't good.
"You can't imagine. We knocked around in the pot as the water pushed us around. After the first shock, I became solid inside. If there was anything alive in me...well, now I'm like a stone.
"We were cooled down in a bath of cool running water, then bundled together in a cloth and put into a basket carried by a stout girl walking briskly down the forest path. She tripped and I was thrown out, and rolled here next to you, Glory.
The third egg, the one with many colors, red, yellow and green in swirly patterns all over it, spoke up in a formal voice. "What happened to me was different. The lot of us collected one morning were put on a table where we rolled in small circles, though one disappeared suddenly and we heard a smash. I was picked up an a needle punched through one end of me, then again through the other end. It went right through me, All my parts were punctured. Then lips were put to one end and my innards were deposited in a bowl. I was blown empty as outer space."
"How did you get to be so pretty," asked Cheep shyly.
"It was a long and complicated process. I drawn on with crayons, dipped in cups of hot colored sour-tasting water, heated and dabbed, and drawn on again over and over. The fnal step was a shower of this glittery stuff that catched the light.
Then, after all that work, I was carefully placed here, I don't know why, and...well, nothing after that. I don't understand it at all. What about you, little Cheep?"
"My place is above us. I was just minding my business along with the other eggs in the nest when one of them, a bit bigger than the others, hatched first and out of it came a big, ugly, blind with wings like sweeps. It backed into me and pushed me up and over the lip of the nest. As I fell I brushed against leaves and landed on a soft spot and rolled here. I'd like to go back but I don't know how. Meanwhile, what's been moving in me is becoming still. I feel I could have been something, I don't know what, but the window's closing."
So the three quietly talked, each touching each other, as the night cooled down, dew fell, and the sun rose.
"What is this," they heard a boy say. "A very strange clutch. What kind of fowl made its nest here?"
A girl's voice said, "It must be a magic bird that has different eggs according to its dreams. This one," she said picking up Hardy, "must have been a dream of the earth, see, it has heft, and this one," picking up Cheep, "must have come from a dream of a sky, like this above us this morning."
"What about the decorated one," asked the boy, as he spoke sharply to a dog to stay back.
"I imagine the bird dreamed all that's beautiful, intricate and colorful under the sky and a bit of heaven thrown in. It must have been a gorgeous dream."
"You're silly," said the boy, "but take it and see if you dream anything like. The blue egg'll be good in the collection I'm making of local bird eggs and feathers."
"What about the brown egg," asked the girl. She knocked Hardy on a stone, peeled him and smelled the white flesh. "Here, Hugo," she said to the dog who was only to ready to wolf it down.
Their voices receded in the distance, and the rising sun found the little impromptu nest of improbabilities vacant again.
The one with the brown shell was called Hardy. "This place is like the nest where my hen laid me. I remember how warm it was under her big, feathered bottom. However that time didn't last long. A hand with very quick fingers reached into the dark place where I was resting quietly, grasped me quickly and pulled me out. My hen gave a short squawk and let me go. I was balanced on top of a lot of other eggs just like myself.
The tiny blue egg called Cheep asķed, "Were they your brothers or sisters?"
Hardy said, no, they perhaps were distant cousins but they didn't have time to find out the connection because soon they were all put one by one on spoons and deposited in a pot of boiling water.
"What is that like?" asked Cheep in a small voice as if guessing it wasn't good.
"You can't imagine. We knocked around in the pot as the water pushed us around. After the first shock, I became solid inside. If there was anything alive in me...well, now I'm like a stone.
"We were cooled down in a bath of cool running water, then bundled together in a cloth and put into a basket carried by a stout girl walking briskly down the forest path. She tripped and I was thrown out, and rolled here next to you, Glory.
The third egg, the one with many colors, red, yellow and green in swirly patterns all over it, spoke up in a formal voice. "What happened to me was different. The lot of us collected one morning were put on a table where we rolled in small circles, though one disappeared suddenly and we heard a smash. I was picked up an a needle punched through one end of me, then again through the other end. It went right through me, All my parts were punctured. Then lips were put to one end and my innards were deposited in a bowl. I was blown empty as outer space."
"How did you get to be so pretty," asked Cheep shyly.
"It was a long and complicated process. I drawn on with crayons, dipped in cups of hot colored sour-tasting water, heated and dabbed, and drawn on again over and over. The fnal step was a shower of this glittery stuff that catched the light.
Then, after all that work, I was carefully placed here, I don't know why, and...well, nothing after that. I don't understand it at all. What about you, little Cheep?"
"My place is above us. I was just minding my business along with the other eggs in the nest when one of them, a bit bigger than the others, hatched first and out of it came a big, ugly, blind with wings like sweeps. It backed into me and pushed me up and over the lip of the nest. As I fell I brushed against leaves and landed on a soft spot and rolled here. I'd like to go back but I don't know how. Meanwhile, what's been moving in me is becoming still. I feel I could have been something, I don't know what, but the window's closing."
So the three quietly talked, each touching each other, as the night cooled down, dew fell, and the sun rose.
"What is this," they heard a boy say. "A very strange clutch. What kind of fowl made its nest here?"
A girl's voice said, "It must be a magic bird that has different eggs according to its dreams. This one," she said picking up Hardy, "must have been a dream of the earth, see, it has heft, and this one," picking up Cheep, "must have come from a dream of a sky, like this above us this morning."
"What about the decorated one," asked the boy, as he spoke sharply to a dog to stay back.
"I imagine the bird dreamed all that's beautiful, intricate and colorful under the sky and a bit of heaven thrown in. It must have been a gorgeous dream."
"You're silly," said the boy, "but take it and see if you dream anything like. The blue egg'll be good in the collection I'm making of local bird eggs and feathers."
"What about the brown egg," asked the girl. She knocked Hardy on a stone, peeled him and smelled the white flesh. "Here, Hugo," she said to the dog who was only to ready to wolf it down.
Their voices receded in the distance, and the rising sun found the little impromptu nest of improbabilities vacant again.
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