A STY HERO

The Saturday of that same week, the Baines family set out to the country side a few miles from the city to their farm for their fortnight food. As other families preferred to harvest their food every weekend from the concrete garden, Mr. Baines thought it wise to personally grow his crops in the outskirts of the city. His farm is composed of the plant section with matooke, pineapples, cassava, beans and peas, coffee and the livestock section with cows, goats, rabbits, poultry and pigs. The livestock section is surrounded by Carriandra plants that provide fresh feeds for the animals and the farm fence is made up of the colorful Bougainvillea to keep thieves and enemies away.

Mr. and Mrs. Aiku along with their four kids are in charge of looking after the whole farm. They migrated to this area not so long ago with nothing after their homeland was attacked and conquered by rebels. They couldn’t be more grateful when Mr. Baines offered them shelter and a source of livelihood. As the older Aiku family took their bosses around the farm showing them the progress and challenges, the Aiku and Baines toddlers remained behind to play. Jumping the rope while chanting the public van rhyme was their favourite. Mary and Ayden took the first turns at swinging the rope as James, Adson, Kate and Aimine took turns jumping. Whoever would get entangled within the rope before the rhyme wa done, they would be marked a failure and would take turn to swinging the rope. The country and town kids played harmoniously enjoying the game till they couldn’t skip or hop anymore. They took a break as they decided on what game to play next, they ended up choosing playing on the swings over the bladder game and hide and seek.

Kate and Aimine went first, followed by Adson and James and later Ayden and Mary. They each to be with someone in their age bracket. The swings were fun going up and down that Adson asked for a higher view so he could see far away. He swung further than the rest could, he could feel the wind bypassing him as though he was on a jet ride. When he swung forward, he could see small figures of their parents at the end of the forest, they must be in the tomatoes garden. “Weeeee am soaring like a kit….” Adson didn’t get to finish his sentence, the ropes of his swing broke loose sending him flying a kite indeed into the sky, all the kids started screaming and running to see where he would land, broken bones were to be expected and the old kids, Mary and Ayden were in so much trouble. “We should have stuck to hide and seek instead” James said as their had Adson fall, though not with a loud bang but with the loudest scream and squeal the children have ever had in their lives.

“That sow is at it again, it kept us awake last night” Mr Aiku complains as they are harvesting the ripe tomatoes,

“What can you say? You have never been due for labour and have no clue on the extent of labour pains” Mrs Aiku says his husband. Mr and Mrs Baines can’t help but laugh at them though that doesn’t ease their concern for the sow. The nearest vet had travelled to town and was expected not until today evening. The sow continues to scream but with on and off squeals. “I think it’s giving birth!” both ladies say and stand straight to identify the contraction sounds, “Quick, we need to at least attend to it” Dayne says to Anna Aiku and they grab their baskets of tomatoes and head for the sties, their husbands follow from behind though not at the fast pace the women are taking.

Adson couldn’t help but scream his lungs out on gently landing in the open sty where the humungous Hampshire was napping. He landed on its bouncy stomach which immediately woke up the sleeping animal. The two living creatures stared at themselves in horror, then the sow angrily marched forward for the awfully scared boy, the anger it marched with made Adson to move backwards in so much fear till he reached the end of the sty and leaned on the wooden walls, anytime from now his pants will be flooding with piss. On his left at the corner he saw and smelled its droppings, he was trapped and could not imagine what the animal will do to him.

He closed his eyes as it was a few centimetres away from him breathing heavily and wishing to launch at him any second. He could hear its nose grunting, Adson opened one eye to see the last of his attacker, more terrified at its sight, he started screaming with all his might and ran to at least give himself a fighting chance, the beast as if responding to him screamed too and started to run around the sty with its heavy weight. Adson unable to comprehend why the heavy animal was chasing him continued to run around in circles more scared now, the door of the sty could only open from outside. He didn’t know how long it would take before help would come along. His parents were at the extreme end of the farm and surely could not hear the competing screams and his siblings and Aiku’s kids were surely too scared to come any closer to the sty.

Leaning in the corner once again catching his breath, his attacker was carefully observing him digging the front hoof in the ground as it planned to launch at him for once and for all. Suddenly the beast started screaming but in a different pitch now, it was more of a pain scream than a chase scream, it moved from where Adson was to the corner with hay and lay down carefully. Adson had seen pregnant animals but he had never witnessed a birth in his short life. The sow lay in the corner with hay and started breathing heavily, Adson thinking maybe it was going to die from over running moved closer to the animal and started soothing it. He used the last of his energy to touch on its warm pink skin. He started whispering in its ear to be calm and that everything will be alright, he even apologised for making it run and that it was his fault he fell unannounced in its home.

The sow lying down in pain grunted and Adson could swear it had said something like "it's time" in response though it was more of a squel than a sound .It stared to push as though it was going to pee. Adson knew that pigs were strictly clean animals that preferred to take their shit in one corner, he thought this one was one big belled lazy sow. As he held his nose expecting poop, a pink small thing popped out where he expected to see poop. His small brain thought it was poo until it started to wiggle around and shouted in a tiny voice "Guys, i think we made it out. Hurrah! I was the first one". He quickly wrapped both his hands on his mouth to stop himself from screaming, “It’s a baby pig and i think it just talked” he thought in his mind. As he was still fascinated by the young life, another popped out. "Weeeee am out out too, it is so spaced and cold out here!" The second one wondered, The two piglets started wiggling around the hay still covered in the slimy lining, how he wanted to touch them so badly yet the shock of them speaking was still on him let alone their scary mother was another reason he kept his distance. As the first piglet started to acquire balance and walk almost steadily, the door of the sty opened and Mr Aiku rushed in at a lightning speed to take the boy away from the pig thinking it hard harmed him or was close to. “Wait, the third one” Adson said pointing to where the third piglet was starting to pop out. Mr Aiku put the boy down and moved to see what the boy was pointing to. By now Mr and Mrs Baines had entered the sty too to witness what was happening. Mrs Aiku appeared with a woollen cloth and they started wiping the piglets while directing them to the breasts for feeding.

“How did you do that young sir”, Mr Aiku asked the young boy after the sow had given birth to nine piglets, how he managed to induce the labour pains in this lazy sow. They had tried almost everything but it had refused to give birth. Adson started to narrate the story of how he fell into the sty, his mother almost fainted with fear on hearing how the enormous creature had chased his son around. “Maybe all it needed was an exercise from somewhere and am glad I was there to help.” Adson simply answered and for once in a long time he was happy his mischief had resulted into yet something beautiful. He had aided bringing creatures to life. He was conc sure those animals were talking loudly as they suckled though no one seemed to notice. As they drove back home from the farm, Adson contemplated changing careers from being a civil engineer to being a vet so he could explore the animal Kingdom.