Chicken Little

Chicken Little was walking down the streets of Medallion, near Eva Peace’s house. It was a huge house with people constantly going in and out. As the little boy stuck his dirty finger up his even dirtier nose, he looked up and then scurried away so the scary woman with one leg wouldn’t see him. Right then one of the deweys through one of Tar Baby’s empty bottles at the little boy and hit him right on the head.

“Gosh darnit!” Chicken Little thought. “We’re so close to Heaven, it’s rainin’ on us.”

“Heaven is fallin’! Heaven’s a fallin’!” Chicken shouted. He practically toppled over Mrs. Jackson.

“Child, what are you screaming ‘bout?” the old lady asked, chewing on a piece of ice.

“Heaven’s fallin’. It knocked me o’er the head. Bottom’s gonna turn into Heaven.”

“Well, I’ll be” Mrs. Jackson murmured. She shook her head and began to walk away. “We could probably do with a bit more Heaven down here anyway.”

Heartened that Mrs. Jackson seemed to somewhat get what he was saying, Chicken Little began running towards the riverbank. His bare feet tossed up more dirt with each step as he increased speed. Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a rock and fell flat on his face. As he slowly picked himself off the ground, his eyes traveled all the way up to meet those of his older brother.

“Where ya headed brother?” Albert asked.

“Nowhere…” Chicken Little muttered. “I hafta tell everyone Heaven’s fallin’.”

“What did you say?”

“Heaven’s falling! It hit me in the noggin!”

“You an idiot! Heaven ain’t fallin’ down on nobody. Now git outta here ‘fore I tell Mama ‘bout your crazy talk. Or maybe I’ll just knock ya into Heaven right now,” Albert threatened, picking up a stone from the ground.

Heeding his brother’s warning, Chicken continued on his path toward the river. He ventured down to the lower bank to play in the water. After unbuttoning his knickers to go for a swim, he heard voices from above. He buttoned back up and started up the riverbank. There he spotted Nel and Sula gazing over the water. He stopped when they saw him and picked his nose. Nel yelled at him, but Sula quieted her.

Sula. Despite the strange fox over her eye, she was always kind and helpful to little Chicken. She even let him climb a tree.

“Hey, Sula. I think I can reach Heaven. It’s fallin’ down ya know.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well it hit me smack on the head.”

Sula flashed her big white teeth. “Alright Chicken, Heaven’s falling.” Looking into Sula’s eyes, Chicken knew he everything was going to be okay.

Back on the ground, Sula “picked [Chicken] up by his hands and swung him outward then around and around” (Morrison 60). Chicken laughed and laughed. He felt the release of Sula’s grip, but he kept on laughing. His fingertips grasped Heaven as he flew over the water. Once his body hit the sandy bottom he was face to face with Heaven’s gate. Chicken smiled with confidence as he walked on in and whispered in amazement. “I knew it was falling.”

* * * * *

The name Chicken Little was used in the book for a reason and I wanted to capitalize on that. I was just going to use a version of “The Sky is Falling” fable and use Chicken Little from the book instead of the chicken in the story, but it sounded funny for a boy to be walking around with a bunch of birds. So I decided to take the Chicken Little from Sula’s perspective on what happened to him, while still keeping some of the fabric of “The Sky is Falling” story. It took me a long time to figure out what to name Chicken’s brother but I chose Albert after I researched Sula’s name online and found out that in Icelandic it meant “the sun.” I found a website, http://www.halfdan.is/vestur/nofn.htm, with meanings of Icelandic names and found one that mean high-born. I figured Chicken’s brother would be older since he was so intent on telling him how high he was in the tree. The actual Icelandic name is Aðalbjörg, so I turned it into a more manageable name, hence Albert. I made Chicken see Sula’s birthmark as a fox because in the version of Chicken Little that I read, Chicken is eaten (killed) by a fox and Sula (accidentally) kills Chicken.