A Very Special Pet

                                                                                         - Nicholasa Mohr

The Fernandez family was very large. Graciela and Eugenio Fernandez had eight children: Pablito, Nellie, Carmen, William, Olgita, Freddie, Linda and Baby Nancy. They were very poor. They had also two pets: Marialu, a large female cat, and Joncrofo, a small, skinny white hen with red crest and a yellow beak.

          The Fernandez couple had bought the hen two years before to feed eggs to their children. The hen lived in the kitchen. Despite a good care for her comfort, she didn’t lay eggs.

          Graciela and Eugenio had moved to Bronx from their village six years before. They had sold their land and livestock to provide the fare. They had been living in a small apartment in the town. They were hopeful to their progress in future. Eugenio was working as a porter in Manhattan. He had to do other extra works for his family. He hoped to get promoted to the post of freight-elevator operator. He used to talk to his wife and children about his dream. They would also become happy to hear that. The children had a hope that one day they would become rich and have TV and telephone. But Mr. Fernandez had a hope to be able to buy a big farm in Puerto Rico.

          One morning, Mrs. Fernandez sat in her kitchen and gave a thought for her family condition. They had been facing many economic problems. She looked around the kitchen and saw Joncrofo catching a cockroach. The hen was bad-tempered but the children loved her very much. They were proud of her because their neighbours did not have such a pet. Mrs. Fernandez remembered that she had done everything she could to make the hen produce eggs, but all in vain. She had lost her hope that the hen would ever lay eggs. So, she decided to kill it and cook for her family.  It had been six years since she killed the last chicken.

          Mrs. Fernandez sharpened the cleaver. She would lie to the children that someone had untied the twine on her foot and when she opened the window she flew away. She told her three children, Olgita, Freddie and Baby Nancy, not to come in the kitchen. Then, she put a chair across the threshold to block the entrance.

          When she got ready, Mrs Fernandez went near to the hen. When she tried  to catch the hen, it nipped her finger sharply. Pulling the twine, she tried  to catch the hen but the hen kept jumping. Snapping Mrs. Fernandez the second time, it ran away and cackled loudly.

          Mrs. Fernandez grabbed a broom and hit the hen with its handle. After some blows, the hen dropped to the  floor. When Mrs. Fernandez caught the hen, the three small children started crying. They had been watching their mother trying to kill the hen.

          Mrs. Fernandez felt helpless. The children had already  known. So, they would not eat the meat. She wondered what she would do to the hen. Meanwhile, she found that the hen was alive. Then she placed her inside the box and dropped water and rum into her beak. Slowly the hen gained her consciousness. She lied to her younger children that she was trying to give the medicine to the sick hen. The children went back to their play. She put the cleaver and the chopping board away.