Running Around (and Such) by Linda Byler

Author:Linda Byler [Byler, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7588-7
Publisher: Good Books
Published: 2012-07-31T00:43:00+00:00

Chapter 22

THE NEXT MONDAY MORNING, when Darwin stopped his car in front of a long, low, silver building, Lizzie’s heart sank. The chicken house was a corrugated steel box with huge round fans on each side. An unruly jumble of weeds and briars grew along the building’s base, and old chicken coops leaned in an odd pile-up beside the door.

The door itself was wooden with layers of paint peeling off the front. The window was so splattered with fly dirt you could barely see it was a window at all. Cardboard cartons lay strewn beside the chicken coops, and eggshells littered the gravel drive.

When Lizzie opened the car door, a stench filed her nostrils and turned her stomach. Her first thought was to make a wild dash for freedom, but instead she followed Darwin into the hatchery. Inside, a lone yellow light bulb hung from the ceiling, reminding her of a jail cell. The bright green walls were barely visible between the stacks of cardboard boxes and dull metal carts piled high with square gray cardboard trays used to hold eggs. A huge machine stood along one wall, which Lizzie assumed was the grader.

Through a door at the far end of the room Lizzie heard a rustling, cackling sound. Apparently that was where the chickens were housed. A green door burst open, and an older gentleman pushed out a darker green cart, piled high with cardboard trays of white eggs. He wore an old denim coat and denim overalls, and a navy blue hat covered his white hair. His face was still quite handsome, Lizzie thought as his light blue eyes shone and he smiled.

Lizzie smiled back and said, “Hello.”

“This is Enos Martin. He gathers the eggs every day and pushes them into the cooler room,” Darwin said.

He pointed at another large green door. When Enos opened it, Lizzie saw that it was insulated, like a refrigerator door. The dim interior of the cooler room gave her the creeps. A wet, rattling sound from up high on the wall came from a cooling unit. Water dripped down the walls into a round granite tub. Would it be her job to empty that tub of cold, dirty water? Lizzie wondered. She shivered and wished with all her heart that Emma was here in this new, scary place and that she was still in school with Sara Ruth and Joe and John.

Darwin showed her where to stack the boxes of jumbo eggs, the extra-large, large, medium, and pullet-sized. That’s a lot of eggs, Lizzie thought. Oh, I hope I can do it without breaking them. She chewed her lower lip nervously and took a deep breath to steady herself.

Darwin flipped a switch on the wall and the long lights attached to the ceiling flickered on, filling the room with bright, white light so that the area was no longer haunted and shadowy.

Pulling a cart of eggs over to the machine, Darwin flipped switches, opened boxes, and adjusted dials. The whole machine purred, rattled, and hummed into action.

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