If you read last week’s “Dances With Words”, you know all about my dealings with the Border Patrol, Service Canada, the IRS, Visa and Amazon.com: they’re all coming to get me! As a result, I have become very suspicious of any knocking at the door, any unusual letter in my mail box, or any package wrapped in brown paper deposited at my door.
I was watching the Mikagesan, an elderly freighter from Monrovia, being eased through the St. Lawrence Seaway Iroquois Lock. There were many other ship-watchers parked alongside our van. Out of nowhere, a woman confronted me, thrust something into my hand and retreated into the crowd.
I called after her, “What’s this for?”
She had already disappeared, but I heard her shout, “I was told to give it to you. It’s for you.”
Being in the presence of a foreign vessel, and having endured so many vexing foreign scammers, I was filled with a mixture of suspicion, annoyance and puzzlement. I held the package at arm’slength, scrutinizing it and listening carefully. No ticking, no high-frequency emission. Could it be an explosive? Perhaps a listening device from Poutine or Xi Jinping has been embedded in this innocent chicken that may just have been trying to cross the road?
I cautiously opened the package that wrapped the chicken. There was a message, “Advice from a Chicken…Hatch good ideas. Start from scratch; stick together. Know when to fly the coop; Look after your brood; Don’t let life ruffle your feathers.”
All that sounded okay to me. then the mission of the chicken was clarified: “I’m not lost, just alone. If I’ve made you smile, please take me home.” I did. Right now, she’s perched in front of my laptop. Her calling card says she’s with Random Acts of Crochet Kindness Canada.
I’m still wondering. Could this be some sort of ploy, ruse, red-herring, Trojan horse, or was it just an innocent chicken wanting to cross the road?
