What happened to the turkeys

My story begins last Thursday. My sister went to close the chicken coop and came back to report her frustrations with the one turkey still not in the coop for the night. It happens sometimes, the one turkey will be back but the other is still wondering the forest until you call her back. I went out with P that night and when I came back T had told me that the turkey hadn’t come back at all.

The next day there was a note on the counter asking if I could go look for the turkey. And I thought ‘was I not on the same page? I’m not expecting to find her alive after night with the coyotes.’

I walked through the woods to places I knew where the turkey liked to go. I was getting lost and hearing weird noises and wanted to get back to the house. It’s just what happens in the wild but I couldn’t handle walking into the carcass of one of my buddies or one of its successors. I found nothing.

The following few days brought talk of the butchering and which neighbours also lost chickens to foxes and coyotes. Now that the one turkey is gone it only seemed fair to butcher the other: to ease her heartbreak and to recover some meat that they had hoped to get when buying the five turkeys so long ago.

The butchering happened Sunday. The day before I left. It seemed rather appropriate to eliminate my major chore. I knows I’m sensitive and noted that I didn’t need to help. I wanted to go down eventually and get a closure on the turkeys and chicken but while I was preparing lunch T came into the kitchen to wash the meat. They were meat, that’s all that’s left of my buddies; their meat and their memories.

One time I was walking towards the coop, the two turkeys were across the lawn. As I walked to the coop the turkeys saw me and ran happily over to me. And then sometimes when I was outside near the coop, the one would often come and stand by me.

Side note: Apparently on butchering day the remaining turkey was also killed by whatever killed the other but my brother in law caught the action in time and was able to retrieve 80% of the meat.