DuckStar / Cyberfarm

by Hazel Edwards

  ‘I’ve seen pictures of belly dancers. They wear veils and jewellery,’ said Horse.

  ‘Pig jewellery?’ said Duck thoughtfully. ‘Sparkly stuff?’

  Horse made a necklace and earrings of sticky lolly papers for Pig. Pig looked good - from a distance.

  Goat’s drumming got faster and faster.

  Pig’s dancing was memorable. He moved all his body to the drums. He went faster and faster. His body moved in the shape of a number eight. He wiggled. He spun. He twirled. At last he fell down puffing in the mud. Cate’s scarf was across his tummy, all muddy. And one earring had fallen into the mud.

  ‘Fabulous!’ puffed Pig. ‘And muddy.’

  Duck grinned. ‘You’ve heard of a mud cake?’ he said. ‘Pig could do a mud dance. Let’s write that on the program for the show.’

  Goat brushed the mud off Cate’s scarf. ‘Great. Before or after my dance?’

  ‘I’m in the show too,’ reminded Sheep, picking up the earring.

  Duck knew it would be best not to start the show with Goat or Sheep, but he couldn’t say that. Goat and Sheep would be hurt. It was hard to make a great show without hurting feelings. A plan was needed.

  ‘There’s a board in Cate’s office,’ said Parrot. ‘Let’s borrow it.’

  ‘Thanks. Then we’ll know what we are doing,’ Duck added. ‘Is that okay?’ He wanted them to feel that it was everybody’s show.

  ‘Okay,’ said the animals.

  ‘Perhaps Parrot can be in charge of props?’ said Duck as they all walked towards the barn.

  ‘I’m good at finding things,’ agreed Parrot. ‘And talking about them.’

  All the animals had forgotten about the Feral. It hadn’t forgotten them. It watched as Parrot pulled the board into the yard.

  ‘What will we call our show?’ asked Duck, trying to be fair.

  ‘I thought it was called “The Show” said Sheep.

  So Duck wrote “THE SHOW” in his best writing.

  ‘Parrot, would you like to open the show with perch gymnastics, Russian style?’ asked Duck. Parrot looked pleased. Duck continued, ‘I’ll talk about the fashion parade when Sheep models his wool. Are you happy with that, Sheep?’

  Sheep nodded. ‘I told you. I have been in a Parade before and if I model, I won’t have to sing.’

  Everybody agreed that this was a good idea.

  So Duck carefully wrote a list on the board.

  ‘And then we’ll need a finale,’ said Duck.

  Just then, the Feral let out a cry.

  Everyone looked up. ‘The Feral! Over there!’

  Only the bushes moved. The Feral had gone.

  ‘Why does the Feral come?’ Duck shivered.

  ‘To eat at the farm.’

  ‘It used to live on the farm a long time ago.’

  ‘What does it eat?’ Duck hoped duck wouldn’t be mentioned.

  ‘Slow chickens,’ said Horse.

  ‘And us,’ said Parrot. ‘Unless we act quickly.’

  Chapter 5

  Head-Sets

  Duck pulled open the barn door. All day, the technos had been busy putting up their display.

  ‘We’d better try things out, ‘said Parrot.

  So the farm animals had a play.

  Each of the farm animals had a favourite cybergame.

  Duck tried on the helmet, which had been fixed. His bill still didn’t fit.

  Pig saw “Inside Pig” from bite to poo. ‘How clever I am!’ He never knew he looked like that inside!

  Parrot spoke into the voice commander.

  ‘Polly wants a cybercracker!’

  Goat danced to Farm Rap music.

  Sheep sat on the photocopier, by mistake, when trying to pat a button.

  Cow pushed the cyber milk-machine push-pull.

  Horse tried the animated flick-book.

  ‘These are fun, but they’re not warm like us,’ decided Horse. ‘I think the children will still want to ride me.’

  Duck wasn’t sure. But putting on a show for the visitors might help.

  ‘Remember there’s a REAL Feral outside,’ Parrot warned.

  True, thought Duck. I’d better do some research.

  Chapter 6

  Scare Feral

  Overnight, Duck borrowed one of Cate’s book. He looked up the word “feral”.

  ‘Feral means wild.’ Parrot peered over Duck’s shoulder.

  ‘Mad sort of wild? Or not tame?’ Duck had heard of wild ducks. ‘Why is the Feral so wild?’

  ‘Never asked it,’ said Parrot. ‘I’m not keen on being a parrot sandwich.’

  ‘Horse is so big. Why would the Feral worry him?’ said Duck.

  ‘The Feral makes a very loud cry. Once it jumped on Horse’s back, dug in its claws, rode him like a jockey and…’ Parrot was just getting started on the story when Cate walked in.

  ‘Hello Duck. Nice to hear you’re enjoying the new displays. Any problems?’

  ‘It’s under control, Cate.’

  Duck had two problems. How to put on a non-boring show for the visitors, and what to do about the Feral. Was there some way he could do both at once? Could the Feral be tamed? Or frightened away?

  Cate dragged some bales of straw across the yard. ‘On Saturday we’re having a special day at the farm. Scarecrow Day. Children and their parents dress up as scarecrows.’ Cate panted as she moved the bales into rows like seats.

  ‘Is a scarecrow a new type of bird?’ asked Duck.

  ‘Scarecrows are meant to scare away birds who eat crops. Being a scarecrow means getting dressed up in raggedy clothes and scaring people. It’s fun.’

  Duck had an idea. Could a scarecrow work on a Feral? For the rest of the day, he gathering useful things. An old broom. A mop. Overalls. A cap left behind. He borrowed a mirror and a tape-recorder from Cate. He told the other animals of his plan.

  That night, they had the final rehearsal. Everything went wrong.

  Goat drummed too hard! The bucket split. ‘Oh, my drum’s broken!’ he cried.

  Sheep slipped on a piece of paper while parading wool fashions. There weren’t any clothes to show so the animals had cut pictures from the magazines in Cate’s kitchen. Duck stuck them all over Sheep’s coat to show what could be made out of wool. Some fell off.

  Pig refused to dance unless he came first on the program.

  Parrot had a sore throat and nearly lost his voice.

  The Chickens couldn’t sing together, and Rooster said he should go first with a Morning Crow. Horse was too big to fit on the “stage”.

  Duck was trying very hard to be a good director, but nothing went right.

  All the animals argued and got noisier and grumpier.

  ‘Could you dance a little slower please, Pig,’ said Duck.

  ‘If I can’t belly dance my way, I won’t be in the show,’ grumbled Pig.

  Duck put his beak under his wing. He mustn’t give up. He needed some time out but he was Director Duck. He took his head out from under this wing. ‘This is only the rehearsal. Let’s try one more time.’

  ‘A bad rehearsal means a good show,’ Horse soothed.

  ‘If the Feral returns there won’t be enough of us for the choir,’ said the Chickens.

  Just then there was a strange cry.

  ‘Yyoowwiiiahhhh.’

  ‘The Feral!’ The Chickens fled. The other animals ran to where Duck had told them to go earlir. Horse held up the mirror. Parrot had the spotlight.

  ‘Over here, Feral!’ cried Duck as he hit the RECORD button on Cate’s tape- recorder with his beak. Then he climbed onto the highest shelf.

  A large bundle of orange fur skidded into the barn. The Feral looked up to find the voice but Duck was hidden.

  ‘Yowwwiiiahhhh,’ it spat.

  Duck shivered. The Feral was just beneath him. This was no time to drop a feather. Or anything else.

  ‘Yowwwiiiahhhh,’ the Feral spat again.

  It prowled around and kicked Goat’s broken bucket. It wa
s furious that it couldn’t find something to eat.

  Duck pressed the REWIND button with his beak and turned up the volume.

  The spotlight was ready. Duck flicked the switch. The light hit the mirror and the Feral saw itself, much bigger.

  Something else was in the barn too.

  In the corner, lurking in the shadows, was the scare-feral. It was very tall, taller than a broom. It had a mop for a face and a cap on top. Overalls billowed out like ghostly clouds. Gumboots dangled above the floor. The strangest thing was the mouth. Sounds came out of it. Loud Feral sounds.

  The Feral’s own voice was screeching back at it, but much louder!

  Director Duck had done a great job with the SFX.

  The Feral quivered. It took a step forward.

  The scare-feral took a step forward.

  Then the Feral let out one more blood chilling scream, turned and fled.

  ‘We did it!’ cried the animals, dropping their dress-ups.

  ‘We’re a scare-feral!’

  Laughing, the farm animals came out from behind the broom, overalls, mop and microphone. Now the scare-feral was flat on the ground with the tape-recorder.

  ‘The Feral got a big fright,’ cried Sheep.

  ‘We used his own voice to frighten him,’ added Goat.

  ‘You directed that well, Duck,’ cheered Horse. ‘Well done for working out what might happen.’

  ‘Thanks.‘ Duck hadn’t been sure it would work. They’d had to do as he directed - and they had.

  ‘If we can put on a show for the Feral, we can do anything!’ said Parrot.

  ‘But this time we want the audience to clap, not run away,’ said Sheep.

  Chapter 7

  The Show

  Next day, visitors arrived dressed as scarecrows.They read Duck’s show sign and wanted to be an audience.

  Parrot was the MC who introduced the acts. Duck hoped everything would go well.

  Sheep displayed the pictures of the all-wool outfits in the Fashion Parade without tripping up. Even the Chickens sang together in their chorus.

  Finally, Pig danced. The visitors had never seen anything like him before.

  Pig started by looking over the scarf. People were only supposed to see his eyes, but there was rather a lot of Pig. He twirled and spun his trotters through the air. His tummy was impossible to describe!

  Goat did a splendid job of drumming on the new buckets. The beat was strong and wild. The audience thought of deserts, camels and dates. For a finish, Pig sank to the floor wrapped in the multi-coloured scarf, lolly earrings sticking to his damp neck. He bowed with a flourish and the crowd went wild.

  ‘Congratulations, Duck. It was definitely a non-boring show,’ gushed Cate. ‘All the visitors want to come back to the farm again tomorrow to pat the real animals as well as play on the cybergames.’

  Duck liked being Director Duck. And he just might try on that cyberhelmet one more time!