2048. Shoo! © Bruce Goodman 11 February 2021

The sensory heritage of the French countryside was recently protected under a new French law. Towns’ people had been moving onto rural lifestyle blocks and suing farmers for animal smells, and animal waste, and mud, and noisy farm machinery, and rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doos at three in the morning. That is why the sensory heritage of the French countryside needed protection. Farms were entitled to continue to smell and make noise and get all grubby. Complaining “townies” would have to bite the bullet. Beau-Roderick and his partner, Constantia-Belle, were new rural life-stylers. (One should perhaps have said Constantia-Belle and her partner, Beau-Roderick (in that order) - but Beau-Roderick was the one with the money and Constantia-Belle was happy to sacrifice a little bit of gender equality for a substantial bank account). Anyway – all that is irrelevant. What is relevant is the neighbour’s domestic turkeys that would fly over the fence, peck at Constantia-Belle’s flower garden, and leave squishy green droppings everywhere. All over the lawn. Yuk! It was embarrassing to have friends from town call in for an evening of barbeque and lawn bowls. Beau-Roderick knew he wasn’t allowed to sue. He had asked the neighbour (nicely) not to let the turkeys fly over the fence. All to no avail. “Just shoo them away. Shoo! Shoo!” said the neighbour. That wasn’t good enough for Beau-Roderick. He got a gun. The turkeys flew over the fence. Constantia-Belle was weeding her little flower plot. “Shoo!” she said, “Shoo! Shoo! you horrible critters!” She waved her arms. Beau-Roderick pulled the trigger. Oops! It was an accident. Anyway, he was getting sick of her. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story