[ WP ] Two chickens at a slaughterhouse share a tender goodbye before death .

`` You know, not all of Darla's eggs were unfertilized.'' 
 
 I looked up, confused as to what the old bird next to me was going on about. 
 
 `` Excuse me? Cluck who the fuck is Darla?'' 
 
 `` My boy, you were n't around long enough to know Darla haha.'' Cluck wheezed, shifting uncomfortably in his shackles that hung him from the roof. `` She was a special hen, my Darla was.'' 
 
 This was confusing the hell out of me, I never knew a Darla in my 4 years at SummerSide Farms, but Cluck was an old cock... 
 
 `` Who was she then?'' I asked, trying to distract myself from the rather gloomy situation i was hung up in. 
 
 Cluck was quiet for a moment, his eye-feathers pressed together like he was trying to remember. 
 
 `` Darla... my boy let me tell you something about Darla. She was n't the biggest hen, or had the softest feathers. She did n't lay the most eggs or sing the loudest, but boy ill tell you what. Darla was what i woke up to do my call every morning for. She was that special one that i cock-a-doodle-dood loudest for. I'm just a lowly chicken, son. But Darla was an angel, the one fine-feathered friend I fell in love with from day one. And there was only one chick i loved more.'' 
 
 `` Who?'' i exclaimed, intrigued by the old mans story, regretting the obvious pain in his eyes was something I could never understand. 
 
 `` We shared a nest one night, and a while later, one of her eggs hatched, and out came my daughter, Click.'' 
 
 I was astonished. Rather than get into the details of that night, i inquired `` What happened to her?'' 
 
 `` She...'' 
 CLANK THUD WHEEEEEEE 
 The turnstile revved up and i felt the conveyor belt holding my legs start to roll forward to the saws. The rock in my stomach sank even lower, I knew this was it. Something hurt even more than that though. As i moved towards the saws, I couldnt help but feel the painful twangs of regret pull at my heart, and i felt jealousy towards he grizzled old cock next to me. There lay a Chicken who in his short life had somehow found what it meant to love, what it meant to love someone new, and what it felt like the bring in new life from the actions of that Love. Cluck hung before me, but where before i saw a gray old chicken, now i saw a father, a husband, a lover. I saw a Chicken who has lived. I looked over at Cluck once more, and what i saw shocked me even more. He was staring straight ahead, with the furthest extent a smile he could manage with a beak. I saw him mouth the words 
 `` I'm coming home Click'' 
 A single tear rolled down my feather, and i no longer felt fear.
