Girl in Yellow Petticoat

Episode one

Sundari

She is unique among them. She is prettier than them, maybe the prettiest in the neighborhood, and she knows that. She leads the gang of her ladies and is big talk in the rooster’s world. She has the elegant way of bobbing with her small head slightly held up. She carries her tiny black spotted wings with a stylized charisma. At times, stands with one leg and takes a look around piously. She used to be the first one to get down from the wooden coop tied to the lowest branch of the mango tree in the backyard. Her name is Sundari.

Girl in the yellow petticoat, begins the day, with a hanging toothbrush struggling at the edge of her mouth, crouching on the edge of the verandah. She lifts her half opened eyes to look at the march of hens, led by Sundari. It is a daily routine. When they move out of her vision, she slowly gets up.  Occasionally she chases them with a long slender stick.  Sundari does not give a damn about it.

And they grew together.

Days passed. Girl in yellow petticoat stayed on the edge for quite a long time until the gang arrived.  Sundari is absent. She gave a dubious look on her face. ’Where the hell has she gone?. She thought. She climbed down in quick, chewing the toothbrush softly to the side.  She walked and look each nook and corner in the backyard and stops for a while to put her Amma’s sandal when it slips off.  After a while, she heard a soft purring sound in the corner of the shed-house. She took a short sprint to that corner. Crouched, unruly thick curly strand on her face, she lowered her head, barely an inch away from the red comb of Sundari. Unexpectedly Sundari made a loud cackling sound. Girl in yellow petticoat fall flat on her back, terrified. Sundari jumped out from the corner and started running with that loud noise. Rest of the gang joined her as chorus. She proudly stood in the middle as if she crowned as the queen.

Girl in yellow petticoat slowly lift her up and wiped the dust off from her hands. She saw it. An egg, brownish in color on the pile of sacks. ‘Eh, I thought she is my age, now she is mama!’. She mumbled with disbelief. She bends down and studied the egg for a few minutes and put back her toothbrush to the mouth, which was lying on the floor.

Girl in yellow petticoat strolled back to the home.