Chapter 1
As chickens go, Tom was kind of the odd ball, he was not very handsome and his feathers were the wrong color. He was always embarrassed of his size because he grew so much faster than his brothers and sisters, and seemed to always get pecked on for being clumsy. He tried to be like his father Thomas, His father was a massive rooster, and strutted around the chicken yard with pride. When Thomas, would crow and flap his wings everyone would listen and dust would fly. He would strut around the yard behind his father imitating his movements but it was no use. His toes were too long and his beak drooped down at the end like it had melted and stayed that way. He had a hard time picking up the corn mash and other food from the ground. Tom liked to sit by himself on the fence post, and that too made him different.
One day his eyes caught a glimpse of a lizard eating the chicken feed, and something made him swoop down and grab the lizard in his beak. It tasted wonderful and he ate it. All his sisters cried Eewwww and he realized he had done it again as he glided back to his post. He thought to himself, “I am an outcast, I should fly away.” He realized he said fly, chickens don’t fly, at best they flap their wings across the ground when they are in a hurry. His mother could always comfort him when he felt alone and picked on, so he hopped off the post and over the chicken coup. His mother was resting on her perch and when he hopped up next to her he realized he had grown even more. He was almost as big as her. “Look at your father, he is huge and your sisters are small because they are hens, you’re a rooster,” she clucked. That made sense, he thought. He hopped from her perch to the top of the ramp leading to the coop, but then something made him hop off the ramp and with two flaps of his wings he was back on his post. He had done it again, why couldn’t he have walked down the ramp like the other chickens. When they scratched at the ground they moved the feed around, when he scratched at the ground he pulled stones out of the ground. Sometimes he even pulled up a big fat worm, if he was lucky his sisters didn’t see it first.
One day while he was sleeping his father crowed loudly, “Snake, everyone lookout there’s a snake in the yard. Tom opened his eyes and what he saw was the biggest worm he had ever seen. His sisters were running away from it as it slithered toward the hen house and his mother. Even his father was backing away. He jumped from his post and flew into the air, he then rolled over on his back and dove trying to crow but all that came out was an ear splitting screech. He did a nose dive onto the back if the giant worm, and using his talons which had grown out the end of his fingers and he grabbed the worm behind its head and separated the head from the body with his beak. The whole chicken yard cheered as he ripped the worm apart eating what he wanted, there was plenty left for everyone.
His father praised him for his bravery and boasted about his son killing a snake. “What’s a snake?” he asked his father.
His father gobbled, “That wasn’t just any snake that was a poisonous viper. One bite could have killed you. How did you know to attack it from the air?”
Tom couldn’t answer the question; it just seemed like the thing to do. He flew to the top of a telephone pole and sat perfectly still watching for anything else that might sneak up on his family.
Tom knew he was different, but being different isn’t all bad. His favorite joke was when someone would ask him a question he would answer WHO, and then gobble. He never grew as big as his father, but he could stir up twice as much dust just with one flap of his powerful wings as he swooped down over his chicken yard.
