“What just like that? You're not going to tell the chicken plucker you're leaving?""She already knows," Grimalkin said picking his way across the yard. "And incidentally, 'the old chicken plucker' can hear every word you say, so I suggest we hurry. After she is done with the fowl, she intends to come after you as well.”

“Oy, prince,” Puck circled back, frowning. “What are you doing? If you didn't know already, the old chicken plucker is on her way, and she's gunning for Winter and Summer stew.”

“We were eating lunch when a chicken walked out of the woods.“Anna, look behind you.”She turned around. “What the heck?”We watched as the chicken came closer. It pecked the ground, not in any kind of hurry.“There was one more after all,” I said.“Yeah, the stupid one,” Anna pointed out. “Although it’s the last one standing, so it’s done something right.”It came right up to Anna and she said, “Oh, hi. Do you not know what we did to the rest of your kind?”

“I want you to know, chickens aren’t sexy. Not to me.”This was met with silence.“Are you there?” She was slurring her words now, which was embarrassing, so she took a deep breath. “Cam? Can you hear me?”“Yes, chickens aren’t sexy. Uh…I don’t think they’re meant to be.”

“She knows where she's going, and what she has to do. She could, after all, find her way to Route 95 South blindfolded. She could do it in the dark, in fair weather or foul; she can do it even when it seems she will run out of gas. It doesn't matter what people tell you. It doesn't matter what they might say. Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.”

“I wonder Pa went so easy. I wonder Grampa didn' kill nobody. Nobody never tol' Grampa where to put his feet. An' Ma ain't nobody you can push aroun' neither. I seen her beat the hell out of a tin peddler with a live chicken one time 'cause he give her a argument. She had the chicken in one han', an' the ax in the other, about to cut its head off. She aimed to go for that peddler with the ax, but she forgot which hand was which, an' she takes after him with the chicken. Couldn' even eat that chicken when she got done. They wasn't nothing but a pair of legs in her han'. Grampa throwed his hip outa joint laughin'.”