Night of the Nuggets: Chapters 16-18
The Amazing Miss Pearl—Helping to Make the World Better for Chickens and People
Hi, everyone! It’s good to be with you for another week. This week has been my first week of retirement, and I must say, it quickly filled up with things other than writing and illustrating! Next week will hopefully be different! Being a worker writer is undoubtedly a full-time job in itself!
This week, we are moving past all of the Shadowy Specters, but Pearl and I will definitely be putting our heads together on a separate volume just for them! We now return to the real “flesh and blood” world of chickens and people as we introduce you to Mr. Kimble. Is he a “bad guy”? There are reasons presented that could cast him as either a “good guy” or as a “bad guy.”
The man Pearl spotted had passed by the identification badge checkpoint without anyone saying a word to him. The worker standing at the booth seemed to almost salute to him, but the salute turned into a respectful nod with the words, “Mr. Kimble, sir.”
Pearl had a good feeling about him because he had a beard that was as white as her feathers. She liked that very much!
He was carrying a straw basket with a handle, and she thought she heard peeps and cheeps coming from inside. Seeing other men joining him, Pearl hurried to catch up and walk with him.
Listening to the conversation, Pearl learned that the little chicks inside belonged to Mr. Kimble as his pets, just as Pearl belonged to Nate. This was a relief because she did not need to worry about helping the little ones to escape from the Chicken Nugget Factory.
Mr. Kimble suddenly looked down and saw Pearl. He stopped and said, “Hello, little one, and how are you on this fine day?”
“I am doing quite well this morning, sir. But I am feeling a bit lost in this place of endless corridors.”
“Well, my dear, you can tag along with me and my two little sweet girls,” he said and opened the top of his straw basket and tilted it to one side so that two young chicks could come out. They were completely white just like Pearl, and she loved them immediately.
The broad smile of Mr. Kimble told Pearl that he had understood, and so Pearl knew that Mr. Kimble had done what few people ever stopped and took time to do. He has learned to listen with his heart.
This surprised Pearl since Mr. Kimble was obviously in charge of The Syndicate and was responsible for turning chickens into nuggets. If he could listen so well with his heart, how could he not hear the chickens calling out not to be turned into nuggets?
“You know, Mr. Kimble, there are more mysteries in the human heart than someone can imagine,” said Pearl, and he nodded knowingly.
“Like whether someone will love chickens for who they are and be good to them or will love them for some other reason that isn’t good for them.”
“I think I know where you’re coming from,” he said and chuckled at how cleverly Pearl had let him know that she didn’t want to be turned into a chicken nugget without really saying so. “As long as you are with me, you are safe like my own two little ones.”
“Have you named them yet?” asked Pearl. “You know they have to have names given to them by a person who loves them.”
Mr. Kimble looked at Pearl with astonishment as if it was something he had not yet considered. “You seem to know a great deal about names and chickens. Can you tell me more?”
“I should probably introduce myself. My name is Pearl. All chickens want to receive a name that is given by a person who loves them. It is what The Great Gardener will know them by, and then one day when it is time for them to leave the earth, the Son of the Great Gardener will come for them to heal them and give them a new home with himself.
“He does this even for those who have names like Failure, and Misfit, and Reject—and I’m sure for even those given the name Nugget. He does this because he loves all he made, especially those given the name Not Good Enough because he has his own way of making them Good Enough.”
“Pearl, you certainly do live up to your name. You and your words are more precious than a Pearl.
“It has been a real pleasure getting to know you, but just to make you feel relaxed, this corridor is not for making nuggets although some of the rooms to have special mirrors for observing the factory operations. This corridor is for my private offices and storing our record books.”
He leaned down and took a metal emblem from around his neck and placed it gently over Pearl’s neck and said, “As long as you are wearing this, no one here will bother you. They will treat you as if you were one of my own.”
Pearl looked more closely at the two chickens to be named and saw that they also had similar emblems around their necks.
“You are very generous to me, Mr. Kimble,” said Pearl. “But remember, you should give names to these two as soon as possible. Having names will be more valuable to them than the emblems you have given them. That’s because the Great Gardener’s Son is more powerful than any of your workers here in the factory or any of the Shadowy Specters who may roam about causing mischief.”
Mr. Kimble used one of his many keys to unlock an office door, which Pearl assumed was his door as the Chief Executive Officer, since he sat down behind the large desk.
Pearl flew up to the top of his desk and saw the shadow selves of his two chickens. They looked quite nice and nothing like a shadowy specter. One of them was even wearing a hat, and to Pearl, that indicated a fun and playful attitude towards life.
As Pearl continued to study Mr. Kimble as he interacted with the chickens, she saw a similar hat appearing on his head. His chickens definitely had a good influence on him, and Pearl paused to imagine a world in which everyone had a chicken or two.
Then Pearl noticed a trophy shaped like a chicken on Mr. Kimble’s desk. It wasn’t white like Pearl and Mr. Kimble’s chickens. It was a blonde color with just a touch of orange. Pearl didn’t like the trophy, which had the word “Nugget” on it.
Also on the desk was a large plate of various treats neatly arranged and looking quite delicious. They were everything that a chicken might enjoy for breakfast, but Mr. Kimble’s two chickens looked as if the treats were nothing special.
“Are these nuggets really so important to you, Mr. Kimble?”
“They are indeed, Miss Pearl. The nuggets provide jobs and food to all the people who work here.”
“Isn’t there something else that can be made here?” asked Pearl.
“Miss Pearl, I know your heart is good, and your mind is sharp. I will make a deal with you.
“You can have free access to everything in the factory. Go anywhere, and poke your beak into anything you want. If you can find a good use for this factory besides making chicken nuggets, I will consider it. As long as you are wearing the medallion I gave you that matches the ones my two girls have, you will always be safe here—no one will bother you anywhere in this entire big factory.”
“But do your chickens know what goes on here and how you make all of your money? Do they know what you must do to be able to give them the special food and fancy treats that have become boring to them? Do they know the profound joy of digging up earthworms?”
“I’d rather that they learn about nuggets when they are ready to learn about nuggets. Now run along while my promises about your safety are still good.”
This last illustration for this week’s newsletter is one of my favorites. It shows Pearl’s persistence in the face of an endless number of things to discover and figure out. Although she is not small as drawn, the perspective of the endless hallway does give the impression of being overwhelmed, and yet it is an endless corridor of answers and we can be sure that Pearl will find the answers she is seeking.
Pearl looked at Mr. Kimble and looked at his two chickens staring back innocently. She knew in her heart that Mr. Kimble would never tell them about chicken nuggets, nor would they ever be made into chicken nuggets.
To Pearl, it was all a part of how life worked. Just like people, chickens can’t choose who will be there to welcome them when they become part of the world. It may be a good part or a not-so-good part that welcomed them. They may not even be welcomed at all. The challenge is making the best of it all—no matter what!
Pearl was always good at coming up with clever new ideas, so she would have a much better chance to tell them what the factory could be used to make rather than nuggets made from chickens.
She hopped down from the desk and stepped out into the hall. It appeared to be an endless corridor of doors. But Pearl would check every door and investigate every corner if she had to.
“I’m going to find out about my parents so that when I can finally raise my own baby chicks, I will be able to tell them where they are from. And while I’m discovering that, I’ll also discover something else this factory can make that does not have anything to do with chicken nuggets for people to eat!”
Pearl was determined, and when a chicken like Pearl is determined, it’s best not to get in her way.
Pearl felt that Mr. Kimble could be trusted, but she did wonder how long ‘while my promises about your safety are still good’ would be.
Our Best Advice for the Days Ahead: Consider how Pearl believes the true challenge of life is making the best of it all! It’s easy to look at the circumstances around ourselves and to focus on the good that some people have when they come into the world, but there are ways to make the best of it all, including rising above those circumstances! (And I really do believe that the world would be a much better place if everyone had a chicken in their own backyard!)
If you have any comments—good or bad—please share them on Substack or you can also reach Pearl and me directly at our official My Girl Pearl website where you will find a “Contact” form at the bottom of the page.
Thank you for reading!
John, Gracie, Bessie, Pearl, Blanche, Emily, and Amelia
My classical radio station played Offenbach's piece with the original "can-can" music and all I could see in my mind's eye were chickens flashing their tail end feathers! Wonderful images at that!
Interesting to see the story evolve. Pearl is intrepid.
In the first picture, the CEO bares a strong resemblance to Walt Whitman. Was that intentional?