Night of the Nuggets: Chapters 19-21
The Amazing Miss Pearl—Helping to Make the World Better for Chickens and People
Hi, everyone! Three new chapters for you this week! And they all involve Pearl’s detective work there in the Main Factory of the Chicken Nugget Syndicate! Hold onto your hat! We could be in for a bumpy ride on the conveyor belt!
Pearl trotted down the hall as only a little white hen can trot—in the most adorable way possible. She had no idea what was in store for her as she went into the first office that seemed to hold some promise for answers.
As best as Pearl could tell from the open doors, these offices ran along the nugget manufacturing line from beginning to end of the nugget processing. Each office had a window that allowed observation of each step in manufacturing.
That particular office was for the Nuggets Breading Machines. From the observation window, she watched as the identical pieces of chicken were dipped into a mixture to make the breading hold on tight, dredged in breading, and flipped for more dredging. When thoroughly coated, they moved forward on a conveyor belt.
Pearl did not care to learn how the chicken pieces arrived at being identical. She was sure that it would not be pleasant to watch because every now and then a bloody feather would pass by on the conveyor belt and then get picked up by a mechanical gloved hand and flicked aside for the sweeper machines to collect.
She did reflect on how neat and tidy the whole process was done. It was all mechanized to where human hands did not need to touch the ickiness of the death real humans had brought, only mechanical look-alike hands that resembled something from a Rube Goldberg invention she had seen in the newspaper comics one Trash Truck Tuesday.
Pearl herself had always valued her originality. Being identical to others was not something she had ever strived to accomplish. Then again, being made indentical as a nugget did not look difficult since there were so many machines to help along the way.
Pearl shuttered and hurried on to the next office in the direction that the conveyor belt was moving.
The next room was for observing the Nugget Cooker. There was no big spacious window, just a small round, window made with glass. With her beak pressed against the glass, she could feel the heat from the nugget cooker.
Pearl watched as the nuggets moved along and slowly cooked to a uniform golden-brown color.
“The people in this factory certainly do value sameness,” said Pearl. “I can’t stand it! Sameness is the most boring kind of existence there can possibly be.
“I can live with being eaten, but I can’t tolerate looking the same as everyone else when I’m being eaten. That is adding insult to injury!”
Pearl had to laugh at herself as she said this. It was the humor of doing the impossible.
“Live with being eaten,” she chuckled and clucked. “Live with being eaten!”
“Why did the farmer think about jumping into a pond filled with alligators?” said Pearl, pretending she had an audience for a new comedy show. “Because he thought he could live with being eaten.”
She imagined the uproarious laughter of her audience and immediately felt less nervous.
“And so why didn’t the farmer jump into a pond filled with alligators?” said Pearl before winding up for her famous punchline.
“Because it was time to…FEED THE CHICKENS!”
Pearl looked quite pleased with her new joke, and she began to anticipate planning her next comedy show.
Pearl found the book which contained the page for a list of orders. It helped that she knew the number of the year that Nate brought her home from the Post Office to the Garden. The ledger books all had the number of a year on the spine of the volume. She quickly spotted the one she wanted, but it was big and would likely be heavy.
Pearl decided to test the power of Mr. Kimble’s medallion. She hopped down from the chair where she had been perching and sauntered over to a kind-looking worker. She grabbed his trouser leg with her beak and gave it a firm pull and prepared to give a peck if that didn’t help get her noticed.
The worker looked down and tried to scoot Pearl away with his foot.
“Go away and leave me alone. Can’t you see I have work to do?”
“Yes, I see you have work to do,” said Pearl, “But do you see that you have work to do? It looks like you’re not doing any of it.”
“Hey! Are you one of them Artificial Intelligence Chickens they have been working on down in Research and Development?”
“What if I am?” said Pearl, not wanting to reveal that she wasn’t a research experiment. That might need her to explain her own natural ability to speak the language of people. “I need help with getting a book down that is heavy and I can’t reach.”
“Well, sure. That’s sort of my job in a way. It looks like they have made you some kind of supervisor or something. I wish I was some sort of genetic freak.”
“You just might be. There’s always hope.”
Not realizing Pearl’s attempt at Supervisory Sarcasm, he took the book down and carefully laid it on the desk where Pearl could use it.
“Thank you so much, young man,” said Pearl. “I will do my best to see that you receive a nice bonus for your helpfulness in your next pay check.”
“That’s very kind of you,” he said. “I’m really hoping for a promotion.”
Pearl carefully scanned the pages of the volume on the desk until she found “#PRL05” and “#BLCH07.” Then she read the marks made in the ledger book.
She was glad that the young man had gone off to take a break so that he could not hear her as she read aloud—the only way she knew how to read. Even so, she kept her voice lowered for privacy.
“Hen #SRH03 and Rooster #ABR06 produced their first clutch of three eggs that hatched successfully. #PRL05 (last to hatch) and #BLCH07 (first to hatch and with an immediate hearty appetite) should both grow into fine egg-laying hens. These two should be suitable for sale to feed and seed stores.”
Pearl stopped there and wondered what names could be made from “SRH” and “ABR” the way that “PRL” and “BLCH” were made into “Pearl” and “Blanche.” For authenticity, she would need to share names—not factory identification codes—with her own little chicks one day.
It seemed that the scientists had been mainly concerned about producing chicks that would grow up into hens able to produce good eggs.
Pearl continued reading. “The other chick hatched was determined to be a rooster, designated as #RJT6, and promptly placed into the rubbish bin as there are sufficient other rooster chicks to be companions for other hens.”
At last, there was the proof that Pearl had been looking for—Pearl and Blanche truly were sisters. She had known in her heart that they were sisters even without the book and the records made by people years ago. There is so much more about being sisters than words on a page can ever prove.
But Pearl was left with a stabbing pain in her heart. Pearl had a brother who she had never met, never known, never stolen an earthworm from after chasing him around.
This news would occupy Pearl’s imagination for days and far more intensely than her clever new joke about a farmer jumping into a pond of alligators. She was sorry that the scientists had seen something unusual about Blanche’s appetite, and she had to wonder if this was connected to her early death. Fortunately, they had not spotted Pearl’s hybrid wing-hands under her regular wings. Having them had allowed Pearl to do all sorts of clever things like making hats and sewing costumes. Those wing-hands had even allowed Pearl to write on that page in the ledger: “This MadNeSs MUST STop!—Supervisor #PRL.”
Then she hopped down from the desk where she was perched and set off to have a good, long talk with Mr. Kimble.
Our Best Advice for the Days Ahead: Consider how Pearl’s unrelenting positive attitude. Even when she receives painful news, she is determined to do something about it rather than feeling sorry for herself!
Pearl considers herself to be “a chicken of action”! You can be “a person of action” and help to right the wrongs that you see! Write about those wrongs. Tell others about those wrongs!
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
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