Page 35 of Out on a Limb
A few minutes later Julia scooted my way to pass over the tool. I unscrewed all four corners and slowly lifted the weathered hunk out of the way. The hole was about a foot and a half by a foot and a half.
Plenty of space to drop a chicken through.
“I’m ready.” I crawled to the edge of the trailer, waiting as my group of bad influencers caught our first fowl, passing it up the ladder and down the branch. I caught the giant bird and walked on my knees back to the hole. I leaned into the chicken’s ear.
Did chickens have ears?
“Flap your wings. It’ll soften the fall.”
I dropped the bird and as soon as she cleared the roof she flapped her wings just like I told her to.
I think I might speak chicken.
I went back for the next bird, waiting as she was passed down the line before dropping her into the hole.
With every chicken I sent into the trailer I started to smile wider.
Assholes.
Send chickens into my garden. See what happens.
We were on chicken number ten when the process slowed down suddenly. I leaned as far as I could without risking falling. “What’s wrong?”
Julia turned my way, her eyes wide. “Someone’s in the garden.”
My stomach dropped.
I was unsure where dropping chickens into a trailer fell on the illegal chart.
Regulatory offense?
Misdemeanor?
Felony?
I wasn’t super interested in finding out.
And it looked like no one else was either, because suddenly my gang of chicken chuckers scattered.
The last thing I heard was Julia’s voice. “Stay there.”
That sounded like a terrible idea.
Getting caught on the roof of a chicken-filled construction trailer seemed like the best way to end up on the illegal chart.
I laid the wood back in place but didn’t bother screwing it down, then I grabbed the screwdriver covered in my fingerprints and rushed to the limb, ignoring the scrape on my thighs as I scooted as fast as I could, back over the fence and into the safety of the garden’s property.
I reached the ladder and leaned forward, hugging the branch as I swung both my legs down one side and slid toward the top step.
But the top step wasn’t there.
The ladder was gone.
Unfortunately momentum had already decided I was dismounting, ladder or not.
My body dragged down, daring my arms to prove they were strong enough to hold me.
But while my body was still moving, something else was not.
