Animal Factory
Philip Caveney
© Philip Caveney 2013
The author asserts the moral right to be identified
as the author of the work in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Fledgling Press Ltd,
7 Lennox St., Edinburgh, EH4 1QB
Published by Fledgling Press 2013
www.fledglingpress.co.uk
Ebook Edition
ISBN: 978-1-905916-71-9
For George
Chapter One
Ravens
One afternoon in August, Fred, the old sheepdog from Morton’s Farm had a dream; quite the most disturbing dream he’d ever had.
Fred had been curled up in his kennel in the front yard of Mr Morton’s farmhouse. He had slipped in there to enjoy forty winks before heading off to herd the sheep down from the high pasture to the big field below. But what had started out as a pleasant dream quickly turned into an awful nightmare and poor Fred was soon whimpering in his sleep.
In the dream he was young again. His limbs were no longer all twisted and bent with arthritis. It was a gloriously sunny day and he was running to and fro across the steep hillside, chasing the sheep out from their hiding places. The sky was clear and blue and the afternoon sun, a round golden ball that drenched the land with heat. Fred felt as though he had enough energy in his wiry young body to run like this forever.
Just then he heard a harsh squawk in the sky above him. Looking up, he saw several large black birds circling in the air above him. At first he took them for crows, but as they came lower he realised from the thick ruff of feathers around their necks they were ravens.
He tried to ignore them and went on with his work, but when he glanced up again there were now twenty or so birds and they were swooping lower than before, low enough for him to see their cold, glittering eyes and their sharp, shiny beaks.
Again he tried to go on with his work, telling himself that birds, no matter how big and aggressive they looked, could not harm him. But when a great shadow fell over him and he looked up for a third time, what he saw filled him with a chill of terror – for now there were literally thousands of ravens, so many that they seemed to blot out the blue of the sky. Fred felt a wave of panic go through him. He abandoned the job at hand and turned to head down the hill back to the farm. As he did so one of the ravens swooped down at him with a horrible shriek and pecked at his head as it rushed by. He snapped at it, but his teeth found nothing more substantial than feathers, so he increased his speed. Now more and more of the birds were coming down on him and in an instant he could feel their savage beaks pecking him in a dozen places, driving deep into his flesh and pulling out tufts of hair.
He kept running, getting closer to the farmhouse all the time and to his relief he saw the door open. Farmer Morton stepped out into the yard carrying his big shotgun. Hope sprang up in Fred’s heart, for he knew that one blast from that mighty gun would send the ravens flapping back to wherever they had come from. But when Farmer Morton saw what all the commotion was about, he just grinned as though he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen and turned and strolled away across the yard.
Fred wanted to shout, to beg him for help, but he was now so covered with squawking, flapping black shapes that he could no longer see where he was going. He lost his footing and rolled over onto the ground, struggling helplessly as more of the filthy black birds came swooping down at him. Feathers covered his eyes, as scores of beaks struck him again and again . . .
When Fred woke from the dream, he crept out from his kennel, shivering, his old bones aching and his head filled with the awful memory of those hideous black creatures. It seemed to him that the dream was no ordinary one, that it meant something important and that he needed to tell others about it. So without further ado, he made his way out of the yard towards the chicken run.
After a quick search he found Henrietta, pecking around in the earth, looking for scraps of food. She was the farm’s best-liked chicken. Though she was said to be a bit of a gossip, she was known to all the farm animals who admired her for her hard work and her warm, motherly qualities. It was common knowledge that Henrietta laid three eggs every day without fail and that Farmer Morton ate two of them for his breakfast each morning. He claimed there were no finer eggs to be had anywhere. Henrietta looked at Fred with concern in her eyes. She could see that something was troubling him.
‘Why, Fred, my dear, whatever’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘I’ve just had a dream,’ he told her. ‘An important one, I think. I believe it meant something.’
Henrietta cocked her head to one side.
‘Tell me all about it,’ she suggested, but Fred shook his head.
‘I want you to call a meeting for tonight,’ he told her. ‘In the old hay barn, after Farmer Morton’s gone to bed. I think we all need to talk about this.’
‘It must have been quite a dream,’ said Henrietta.
‘It was,’ he assured her.
She nodded. ‘Leave it to me,’ she told him. ‘I’ll put the word around.’
‘Thank you, Henrietta. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
‘Are you sure you’re all right, my dear? You seem very worried.’
Fred nodded. ‘I think . . . I think something bad is coming,’ he said.
Just then Farmer Morton stepped out of the house and whistled for Fred. Fred gave his aching limbs a last stretch and trotted across the yard to greet his master.
‘Good morning, Farmer Morton,’ he said, as brightly as he could. He did not want the Tall One to know that he was troubled.
‘Good morning, Fred. You feel up to this?’ asked Farmer Morton.
‘Of course,’ said Fred cheerfully. ‘Raring to go!’
Farmer Morton looked down at the old dog, an expression of doubt on his face, then shrugged his shoulders and turned towards the farm gates.
‘Come on then,’ he said.
He and Fred set out for the high pasture and as they went, Fred found himself glancing warily towards the sky, but happily the only birds he could see were a couple of sparrows and a solitary thrush.
Chapter Two
The Meeting
That night the animals gathered in the barn. There hadn’t been enough room for all of them, so Henrietta made sure that she had invited the best individuals from each group along, telling them that after the meeting they could easily pass on what had been said to their comrades.
Nearly all of the chickens were present. Martha, who was feeling a bit broody, had opted to stay behind and Nervous Yvonne never left the safety of the coop, but once the others had heard about the meeting, they had all insisted on trooping along. Henrietta had been obliged to invite Jonah, the farm’s goat, even though he never thought about anything but food and was unlikely to take much interest in the proceedings. However, years ago, Jonah had mastered the knack of unlatching the gate of the chicken enclosure with his teeth. Farmer Morton had recently lost quite a few chickens to a pair of wily foxes from the woods nearby and always made sure that he secured the gate for the night, so Jonah was needed to let the chickens out and latch the gate after them. She could hardly ask him to do all that and not let him attend the meeting.
From the pigs, Henrietta had invited Marmaduke, the farm’s prize boar and several of his wives (or at least, the ones he was still on speaking terms with), but it had been decided to leave a couple of sows back at the sty with the piglets,
who tended to be excitable and would probably have drowned out the other animals with their squeals.
Representing the sheep was Sally, who was thought to be the brainiest of the flock, though to be honest, that wasn’t saying much for her. The sheep were known to be the stupidest creatures on the farm and Henrietta thought it was a waste of time even having one of them present, but she knew that she couldn’t really exclude them. Sally had insisted on bringing half a dozen of her friends for moral support, but judging by the vacant expressions on their faces, she might just as well have not bothered.
Also in attendance was Sheba, a Siamese cat who made no secret of the fact that her main interest in life was herself. She was a sly and rather selfish creature who had a morbid fear of doing anything that wouldn’t benefit her in some way.
There was a general hubbub of voices as everyone got themselves comfortable on the bales of hay and Jonah, after prodding an electric switch with his snout for several minutes, managed to get the lights on. Fred limped to a position in the midst of all the other creatures and a respectful silence fell. He looked slowly around at them and began.
‘My friends,’ he said,’ I have summoned you here tonight because of a dream I had this afternoon. I will speak of that in a moment, but first I wish to share a few thoughts with you . . .’
‘Here we go,’ murmured Jonah, rolling his eyes and a couple of the other animals shushed him.
‘Ever since I had the dream I have been thinking about our lives here on Morton’s Farm. As you know, I have lived and worked here since I was a pup. Now I am old and the smell of death is upon me . . .’
‘I wondered what that was,’ purred Sheba, cattily, and received a glare from Henrietta for her trouble.
‘When I was young I worked hard every day for Farmer Morton, and all I ever received for my trouble was a bowl of food and the odd kind word. It’s true that once I had proved my worth, the Mortons allowed me to sleep in a basket in the kitchen, beside the warmth of the stove. But of course, when the smell came upon me they did not like it and I was moved out to my kennel in the yard. I never complained about my lot. For us animals, this is the way of things.’
‘You think you’ve got it hard,’ grunted Marmaduke. ‘All right, I don’t do a tap of work, I lie around in the mud all day, eating and grunting, but one day soon, I’ll have outlived my usefulness and then before you can say ‘bangers and mash’ it’ll be goodnight Irene!’
There were general grunts of agreement at this.
‘What about us chickens?’ said Henrietta. ‘I never even knew who my mother was. I have no children because my eggs are taken from me just as soon as I lay them. Yes, Farmer Morton eats them and speaks highly of them, but does he ever allow any of them to hatch so I might enjoy motherhood? No, he does not! And let’s face it, when I can no longer lay, I will end up in a bowl with dumplings piled around me.’
There were more shouts of agreement, particularly from the other chickens.
‘Well, what about us sheep?’ asked Sally. ‘We have the wool sheared off us every summer and those workmen can be very rough. Sometimes we even get the occasional nick from the shears.’
There was a brief silence. Everyone looked at Sally as though they didn’t really think that was quite on the same level as being eaten.
‘At least you get food,’ muttered Jonah. ‘Oh, yeah, you’re sorted, you are. In the winter, when there’s no grass to be had, you get your nosh chucked down right there in front of you. The chickens, they get chicken feed, the pigs get their swill, but what do I get? Eh? I say, what do I get? Grass and a few weeds, if I’m lucky.’
‘Yes, well, some of us are not fussy about what we have for dinner,’ said Sheba. She was referring to the fact that on one memorable occasion Jonah had eaten Farmer Morton’s best trousers, which had been hanging on a line in the yard, a crime for which the old goat had been soundly beaten.
‘Yeah, well, that was an accident,’ said Jonah. ‘See, they was hanging right next to some flower bushes and I was eating the flowers, as yer do, and I kind of forgot to stop eating when I got to the trousers.’ He gave a wistful sigh. ‘Very nice they were, actually. Lovely tweedy material, plenty of roughage. Kept me regular, anyway!’
‘Yes, yes, we all have our stories,’ Fred said, sensing that the meeting could very easily turn into a big row, ‘But please hear me out for a moment. As bad as things are for us, the dream I had today leads me to believe that they are only going to get worse.’
‘How could they get any worse?’ asked Marmaduke.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Fred. ‘But the dream seemed to say that something bad was coming, so I thought I’d tell everyone about it and see what they made of it.’
‘Well, tell us then,’ said Jonah irritably. ‘It’s boring standing around in here!’
So Fred told them about his dream. When he had finished talking there was an uncomfortable silence.
‘So what are you saying?’ asked Sally, nervously. ‘That we’re all going to get pecked to death by a load of black birds?’
‘Of course not!’ protested Fred. ‘Dreams aren’t like that. You’re not supposed to interpret them literally. They mean something else. That’s why I called everyone together, so we might decide what we think it might be.’
‘Ravens,’ murmured Henrietta. ‘Now I’m sure somebody told me once that if you dream about ravens, it means that a change is coming.’
‘Really?’ said Fred. ‘Who told you that?’
‘I’m blessed if I can remember,’ said Henrietta.
‘Might not mean anything,’ grunted Marmaduke. ‘Probably just indigestion.’
‘What?’ cried Fred.
‘Indigestion. I often get bad dreams if I eat too much.’
‘Which is every night,’ observed Salome, one of Marmaduke’s wives. ‘And it wouldn’t be so bad if that’s all it gave you.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ grunted Marmaduke.
‘You know what I’m talking about,’ said Salome.
‘You’re one to talk,’ said Marmaduke.
‘Oh, now please, let’s not have a fight,’ said Fred wearily. He looked around. ‘Sheba, what do you think?’
The cat stretched and yawned. ‘I’m wondering if the Mortons have remembered to leave a bowl of milk out for me,’ she said. ‘I’m thirsty.’
Fred groaned. This was not working out as he had hoped. ‘Does anybody else have a theory about my dream?’ he asked hopelessly.
There was a short silence then a little voice said,‘No, but I have a question.’
Everyone looked down in surprise. The straw in the corner of an old stall was stirring and as the other animals watched in amazement, something crept out from under the straw and came to stand in the midst of them. It was a tiny, black and white pup, a sheepdog that none of them had ever seen before. He stood there, looking meekly up at the other creatures towering over him, his little legs trembling.
Henrietta immediately pushed her way through her companions to stand beside the pup. She looked down at him. ‘What’s your question, little one?’ she asked gently.
The pup gazed up at her with big brown eyes. ‘Where am I?’ he asked.
Chapter Three
The Stranger
‘You’re at Morton’s Farm,’ said Henrietta. And after a few moments, she asked, ‘Who are you, my dear?’
The puppy looked slightly baffled. ‘I . . . I don’t really know,’ he said. ‘I think I might be called Ralph. At least, that’s what the big upright keeps saying to me.’
‘The big upright?’ murmured Fred. ‘You mean . . . Farmer Morton?’
‘I suppose I do. He brings me milk in a . . . round white thing?’
‘A bowl,’ Henrietta corrected him. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll soon learn the words for everything.’
‘Yes. Well, he brings me milk. And he keeps saying, Ralph, Ralph! And then laughing.’
Fred nodded. ‘Yes, he’s a big fan of the comedy names,’ he
said. ‘Sounds like a bark, see. RALPH! RALPH! Me, I was named after Fred Barker, who’s some kind of character from a comic strip . . . whatever that is.’
‘Umm.’ The pup looked uncomfortable. ‘I was wondering . . .’
‘Yes?’ prompted Henrietta.
‘You . . . you haven’t seen my mother
around anywhere, have you? She’s kind of big and warm and . . .’
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. None of the other animals seemed to want to look at Ralph. Then Henrietta moved a little closer and put her warm feathered body against him.
‘Well, my dear, she’ll be gone now, you see. You’ll have been brought here to start a new life.’
‘Oh,’ said Ralph. ‘Oh. And she . . . she won’t be coming back any time soon?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Henrietta.
‘Change,’ said Fred darkly. Henrietta looked up at him.
‘Pardon?’
‘You said the ravens meant change and sure enough, a new pup arrives.’ Fred scowled. ‘And it doesn’t take a genius to work out what he’s doing here, does it?’
‘Is he food for someone?’ asked Sally and everybody looked at her.
‘No, you idiot,’ growled Fred. ‘He’s not food. He’s my replacement, isn’t he? They must think I’m getting past it.’
‘You are knocking on a bit,’ said Jonah.
‘Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence.’ Fred studied the goat defiantly. ‘Don’t you worry, mush, there’s life in this old dog yet. Oh, yes. I still know a trick or two.’ He moved closer to Ralph and studied him in more detail. ‘So, come on, let’s have a good look at you,’ he said briskly. ‘Let’s see what we have to work with.’
Ralph tried wagging his tail but his expression was so sad, it didn’t quite work.
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