Big Egg and Little Eggie

“You know Eggie, it’s not over-easy to be big. I was brought into this world the same day as you were, and right away, people had a lot of eggspectations from me. My mother, obviously, was an over-achiever. Had to be, just to lay me in the nesting bock-bock-bocks.”

“Right Big Egg, I’m sure she had to eggsert herself to squeeze you out without scrambling you.”

“Yes, she must have tried eggstra hard to lay me without having an eggsident. I remember hearing the other hens clucking around her at the birthing. What a hen party that was! “Push! Push!” they clucked, egging her on, and eggs-horting her to try harder, and the whole time she was in eggstreme pain. The yolk was on them though, because I came out big and beautiful. But it was really oval the way they teased her about having such a big baby.”

“‘And look how green his face is,’ they jeered. ‘Must have been in the womb too long before he got air.'”

“‘Hah!’ snorted my aunt Penny. You remember Henny Penny? Well, she said, ‘It was probably the air in this henhouse that turned his face green.’ That nearly cracked me up, but I have to eggree with her. It is pretty hummy in there. So green I am, and green I shell stay. Still, I’d like to add that I’m eggcited to be here.”

“But you think your life is hardboiled already? What if you were eggstra small like me? I’m just a shell of a man. It’s hardly worth adding me to a cake or an omelette. I’ll always be the odd man out; an unnecessary eggstra.”

“Oh I have an easy shellution. Your size will come in hendy. You are the perfeggt size for a special eggcasion. Before an opera singer goes on stage, she has a glass of wine with a raw egg in it. She doesn’t want it to be so big that she geggs on it, so a tiny tot like you, for eggsample, would be perfeggt.”

“Okay, so my problem is solved. What about you though? You will have to be an over-achiever like your mother. That will not be a sunny-side up road for you to follow.”

“Not to worry, Eggie. I have a secret helper. I’m really a twin and life will be fine, like two eggs, over easy. Those hens that laughed at me for being big don’t know it yet but the yolks are on them.”

 *****

 If you have not visited Carol Balawyder’s post, please do. She has kindly featured my novel Reckoning Tide, the sequel to The Wind Weeps. Visit Carol’s blog here.