Chicken and Rudy
When I was a kid, I had a Lassie picture book that started out with two men on their way to work driving by Lassie resting under a tree. As soon as they passed by, Lassie got caught up in an adventure.
By the end of the afternoon, Lassie had saved the day. Exhausted, she returned to the tree and stretched out under its branches for a little rest.
As soon as she got settled, the two men drove by the other way on their way home. Thinking that she had been lounging under the tree all day, the men commented on what a soft life she had.
We, the readers, knew otherwise.
When Sparkle Girl and I started collaborating on a story the other day, I thought it would be fun to bookend the story that way.
The characters in our new story are named Chicken and Rudy. Chicken is a bird but he is not a chicken. That’s just his nickname. Chicken is afraid of nothing. Another thing about Chicken is he’s not interested in taking the simple approach when, with a little thought, he can come up with something challenging.
Chicken is based on Garnet’s father.
Rudy is the sidekick. He is a four-legged mammal of no particular species. He’s smaller than Chicken, and he’s the voice of reason.
Our first story opens with Chicken and Rudy sitting on the bench in front of the country store. Mrs. Duck comes by on her way to the farmers market. All her little ducklings are trailing along behind.
She asks Chicken and Rudy whether they would be willing to watch her babies while she shops.
Be glad to, they say. As soon as she is gone, they start speculating about the best way to entertain the ducklings. Rudy suggests that they take the ducklings for a swim in that pond over yonder. Chicken, of course, is uninterested.
Instead, he gets his pick-up truck, fills the back with water and puts the ducklings in back. Then he tells Rudy to hop in, that they are going make it exciting for the ducklings by whipping the truck around a bit to get some wave action going in the back.
The business about filling up the back of the pick-up with water and driving around with young ‘uns in back comes directly from Garnet’s dad. He used to do this with Garnet and her friend Mandy.
When Garnet first told me this story, I was skeptical. Now that I know her dad, I believe it.
Rudy counsels against driving around with ducklings in back. To no avail.
So they’re off. This goes well enough until they hit a rock sticking out of the ground. The back end of the truck pops up, creating a giant wave that sloshes the ducklings right into the top of a tree.
Chicken stops the truck, gets out, looks up and says, “What are we going to do now?”
“You’re a bird,” says Rudy. “Fly up and get them.”
“Where’s the challenge in that?” says Chicken.
Being who he is, Chicken has all sorts of tools and equipment back at his house. He may decide that the best thing to do is go get his crane. But we don’t know yet. What we do know is that it’s something that would horrify Mrs. Duck if she saw it.
Sparkle Girl had the brilliant idea of setting up the picture so that whatever it is happens in the background while Mrs. Duck shops at the farmers’ market in the foreground. She catches something in the corner of her eye but, when she looks up, the action has passed her by.
Other stuff that we have yet to figure out will also happen. When Mrs. Duck comes to pick up the ducklings at the end of the story, Chicken and Rudy will be back sitting on the bench with the ducklings as if nothing had happened.
That’s it so far.
