The Chicken Gave it to Me. Anne Fine

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      Andrew laid it on Gemma’s desk. A cloud of farmyard dust puffed up in her face. The first thing she asked when she stopped sneezing was:

      ‘Where did you get that?’

      ‘The chicken gave it to me.’

      ‘What chicken? How could a chicken give it to you? It’s a book.’

      It was, too. A tiny little book. The cover was just a bit of old farm sack with edges that looked as if they had been – yes – pecked. And the writing was all thin and scratchy and – there’s no way round this – chickeny.

      ‘This is ridiculous! Chickens can’t write books. Chickens can’t read.’

      ‘The chicken gave it to me,’ Andrew repeated helplessly.

      ‘But how?’

      So Andrew told her how he’d been walking past the fence that ran round the farm sheds, and suddenly this chicken had leaped out in front of him in the narrow pathway.

      ‘Pounced on me, really.’

      ‘Don’t be silly, Andrew. Chickens don’t pounce.’

      ‘This one did,’ Andrew said stubbornly. ‘It fluttered and squawked and made the most tremendous fuss. I was quite frightened. And it kept pushing this book at me with its scabby little foot – just pushing the book towards me whichever way I stepped. The chicken was absolutely determined I should take it.’

      Gemma sat back in her desk and stared. She stared at Andrew as if she’d never even seen him before, as if they hadn’t been sharing a desk for weeks and weeks, borrowing each other’s rubbers, getting on one another’s nerves, telling each other secrets. She thought she knew him well. Had he gone mad?

      ‘Have you gone mad?’

      Andrew leaned closer and hissed rather fiercely in her ear.

      ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I didn’t choose to do this, you know. I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t get out of bed this morning and fling back the curtains and say to myself, “Heigh-ho! What a great day to walk to school down the path by the farm sheds, minding my own business, and get attacked by some ferocious hen who has decided I am the one to read his wonderful book –”’