Excerpt: Cascade Lakes Footnotes

Jenny took the black and white polka dot rain coat from off the cupboard door and grabbed the shed key hanging off the knob on the ajoining cupboard. She stepped out into the air, sniffed, and knew that the rain was coming to an end. The sky was trying to peek through the clouds and she could see big patches of blue. Like the blue against which Mount Hood was framed earlier in the day while she sipped her morning coffee and wondered about the changes in her life.

She walked down the wooden steps, having to step over Bertram, who was sitting on the final step. He clucked at her when she was one step above, turning his head around in that way that only members of the bird species can do. His red comb wiggled comically, side to side, and he jutted his little head forward and back three times.

“Don’t you dare even think about pecking me, you little bugger.” Jenny told him as she stepped over him and onto the grass, rather than risking stepping beside him and getting another puncture wound like what happened just after she brought him home.

She did not really want a rooster, but her friend, Robert, told her she had to have a rooster if she had hens and expected to get any eggs. He also said that the rooster would keep the hens in line and was required so that the hens would not escape and leave her totally bird less. She doubted that last statement, but he believed it and it was not worth arguing about. So Jenny and Bertram had come to an agreement after he got mad at her for walking too close to him. She told him that, if he wanted to stay here where he would be treated well, fed, allowed to wander freely, he needed to respect her. She was the one who brought him the food and provided shelter and hens and she would not tolerate this type of macho attempted dominance.