Something was up that week so Cass wasn\u2019t surprised when she opened the fridge and heard an egg scream. Cass was there for a snack, but she was open to dialogue.<\/p>\n
The egg, the size of her fist, said, \u201cI think it\u2019s time you met my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMother?<\/em>\u201d asked Cass, startled by the forwardness of the egg as she placed it on the table.<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d Egg said. \u201cI\u2019ve already sat through breakfast with yours and she wouldn\u2019t say a word to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not you,\u201d Cass said. Cass\u2019s mother was pissed that she\u2019d brought home the carton of duck eggs from the neighboring farm on a day when she was supposed to help with the chickens. Her mother called the farmers unnatural, but from what Cass saw they simply had a bigger, brighter barn.<\/p>\n \u201cYou willing or not?\u201d Egg asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess,\u201d Cass said, wondering if now was a bad time to grab some cheese.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d Egg said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow?\u201d Cass asked, glancing at the moon through the kitchen window.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to stay here<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n Egg had a point. Cass\u2019s sisters had just woken her, rubbing her with chicken parts. Yet somehow the stink of blood from a claw clamping her nose didn\u2019t stop her stomach from gurgling. \u201cOnly if we have a picnic,\u201d Cass said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right,\u201d said Egg. \u201cBut bring enough for Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n Cass nodded, though she wasn\u2019t certain exactly how much to bring. She packed her bag with a tablecloth, frozen peas, and bread, then started off for the next-door farm.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to meet her, do you?\u201d Egg asked.<\/p>\n \u201cSure I do,\u201d Cass said, unsure if that was true.<\/p>\n The wind was breezier than expected when Cass put down the cloth so she held it down with stones, careful that Egg didn\u2019t rock.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can start,\u201d Egg said.<\/p>\n So Cass ripped into the bread and sprinkled out the peas to be polite, though she knew that Egg wasn\u2019t about to eat. Soon enough the other ducklings gathered\u2014bigger than Cass remembered\u2014diving for the peas with welcome gusto.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you really gonna be picky?\u201d Egg asked.<\/p>\n Shamed by Egg\u2019s good manners, Cass went for the peas nose-first, joining in the rhythmic camaraderie, like a party of jolly jackhammers.<\/p>\n And that was how she met Egg\u2019s mother\u2014teeth smeared green with dirt.<\/p>\n Mama Duck was tall as a house.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are your plans for my son?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Breakfast<\/em> seemed an inappropriate answer.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a job?\u201d Mama Duck asked.<\/p>\n Cass shook her head.<\/p>\n \u201cYou thought about kids?\u201d Mama Duck asked.<\/p>\n With an egg<\/em>? Cass thought, unable to look at him.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are questions you must think about before we finalize your commitment,\u201d Mama Duck said.<\/p>\n Cass channeled her nerves into shredding what was left of the loaf, and threw it to the ducklings. Her tone was the same as Cass\u2019s mother on the mornings when Cass ate jellybeans for breakfast. Her mother had never understood that Cass only ate them to avoid her sisters at the table; she could fill her pockets and leave.<\/p>\n That way Cass could pop candy while watching the farmers across the fence. Every sunrise the old farm couple scooped the ducklings up, and would waltz in unison, stroking till their feathers poofed.<\/p>\n The closest Cass\u2019s own mother got to their chickens was with a cleaver. Even now her sisters would be sneaking into her room, stuffing her sheets with chicken heads.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you love me?\u201d Egg said.<\/p>\n Cass felt something blossom inside her and she cradled Egg in her arms. She stroked him as if she were finger-painting her love onto his shell, melding her fingerprints onto his membrane, linking their identities as one.<\/p>\n Suddenly Cass felt itchy. Her arm hairs prickled into feathers and her feet knocked off her shoes. Her toes wiggled into long webby, hominoidal digits.<\/p>\n \u201cMama?\u201d Cass asked.<\/p>\n Mama Duck replied with a nod, gathering her ducklings close.<\/p>\n They all breathed together as Cass yawned up her arms. And as she plucked Egg up with her feet, they all lifted off for the South. \u2727<\/p>\n Julienne Grey\u2019s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Joyland Magazine, Slice Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly<\/em>, and theEEEL<\/em>, among others. She attended the 2014 Tin House Writer\u2019s Workshop after receiving the 2013 Slice Literary Writer\u2019s Conference Scholarship. Follow her on Twitter @JulienneGrey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Something was up that week so Cass wasn\u2019t surprised when she opened the fridge and heard an egg scream. Cass was there for a snack, but she was open to dialogue. The egg, the size of her fist, said, \u201cI think it\u2019s time you met my mother.\u201d \u201cMother?\u201d asked Cass, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[156,8],"tags":[86,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1960,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/1960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreview.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cJunk food,\u201d Mama Duck tsked.<\/p>\n