The Great and Powerful Ox

The Great and Powerful Ox

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To my Dad.

Academy School Maple Leaf

2014

part one: the pig

Gil could not sleep. The light was dim in the early morning. He’d tried waking up Martha, Gil’s best friend, but she was a heavy sleeper and would not wake up. She was a pig and lived in the same pen has Gil. He trotted over to the compost bucket--nothing. Fargo must have ate it all. Fargo was Gil’s big brother who was always eating too much. The only thing left was an old carrot stem and potato peels. Gil plopped down and started rolling in the dirt, after a while that got boring. So he walked to the far side of his pen where Martha was sleeping.

“Hey,” he whispered. Gil was talking to Martha who always slept in the corner of their pen. Gil shook her. She didn't wake but she rolled over. He shook her again.

“Uhhh,” she moaned. Slowly waking up.

“Hi,” Gil said.

“What who's there?” said Matha with two whips of her head this way and that. “Oh, it’s you, Gil! You scared me, and what are you doing awake this early in the morning?”

“I can't sleep!” whined Gil.

“Oh, just count sheep or something. I’m going to bed!” She said, and with that she layed down and slept. By now, the early morning compost would arrive, and he could eat something that was not just leftovers.

The sun was coming up and the world was not as dark and dim. Just as he had thought, the farmer was coming with a big bucket that smelled of delicious food. He knew what it was, old sardines! That was Gil’s favorite! He raced to the other side of the pig pen just as the farmer dumped the whole thing in their bucket. Immediately he gulped the sardines down and woke up the rest of the pigs. First he woke up Fargo because he needed to eat the most. Then Uncle Jerry, Pete, Martha and Tally. Now all the pigs were up. Uncle Jerry was not his real uncle. They weren't even related. Uncle Jerry just always lived on that farm in that pen and was like a father to the young pigs. Pete was just a sensible pig that was the oldest out of the piglets and always showed so much authority. Tally was born at the exact same time as Gil so they were twins. Of course Fargo, who did not talk much, had already started digging into his next meal.

Later that day, all the pigs but Uncle Jerry were running in a race. Each pig would start at one side of the pen and race to the other side. “Ready Set Go!” yelled Pete. He was always the leader of things. Gil ran as fast as his short legs could carry him. He tripped on a pebble and did multiple somersaults and tumbled under the other side of the fence. It happened so fast. He was under in no time at all. He had never been under the fence. The grass was so fluffy and green not at all like the matted down grass in the pen. By now Pete was being a protective older brother. He yelled, “Gil, get back over here right now!” But Gil was not listening. He was too curious. There was the farmhouse, and the door was open. Should he run into the house, go back to the pen, or explore the other parts of the farm. Gil decided to go into the house. It was risky but Gil loved the thrill of risk and the chance of danger. Most of all he loved not obeying Pete. Uncle Jerry was asleep so he could not tell him what to do. Why should he listen to his older brother Pete anyway?

He ran to the open door of the farm house. He ran past the barn, the stable and the outhouse. The grass was so fluffy and soft it was harder to run in. He liked it. When he got to the door of the house, he took one look back at his pen. All his pig friends were calling for him to come back. His older brother Pete looked furious but Martha only nodded reassuringly. Tally shouted for him to not go in. He did one big jump into the house. At once the smell of baking muffins filled his nose. This must be the kitchen uncle Jerry had told him about. He said it had a thing called a table that the farmer and farmer's wife sat at to eat. Gil always thought that was weird. Why do they eat on wood and use metal knives, forks and spoons (Uncle Jerry had told him about those too.) when they could just eat on the ground with their faces? There, on the far side of the room was a staircase and the farmer and his wife were coming down it. He quickly slid behind a coat rack by the door. When the humans arrived they sat on the so called “table”. The farmer banged into his chair and made a coat fall off the rack on Gil’s head, covering his whole body. It was a perfect hiding place except he did not have any place to see, but he could hear.

“We should get it, Lauren!” the farmer was saying, “Oxes are so good at pulling things and when I give the tours of the farm, an ox looks so much better than a tractor, and foxes won’t come to eat the chickens anymore. No, not with an ox around,” said the farmer.

“Joe, tractors are much better. If we buy a tractor, we don't have to buy a wagon, to,” the farmer’s wife said and stamped her fist on the table.

“Well now, Lauren, we don't have to buy a wagon. George was going to give me one free. He was gonna sell it, but he said I could take it.”

“Well, that’s one good thing about your bad idea,” said Lauren. “But Joe, tractors are much faster than oxes. You will get your work done so much quicker.”

“Yes Lauren, that’s true, but having an ox around, people can pay to feed the ox when customers come to look at the animals,” said Joe.

“FINE, HAVE YOUR STUPID OX!!” Lauren said and then stomped upstairs and left the farmer at the table.

Gil wanted so badly to get out of the coat. It smelled like old sweat and woodsmoke but he could not move. He was too terrified. An ox was the last thing the farm needed. They were big and scary and mean and bullies. He learned two things in his adventure in the farmhouse--one good, one bad. The good one was that he finally found out the farm people’s names, Lauren and Joe. That was good because Gil did not want to call them the farm people anymore. The bad thing was THEY WERE GETTING AN OX!!!

“Oh, my coat fell down,” said Joe as he walked over to Gil and picked the coat up, revealing the spunky pig. “Hey, there piggie. what are doing in the house? We better get you out before Lauren sees you. I never saw anything as strange as that.” Then he picked up Gil. It was an amazing sensation, Joe slung the baby pig over his shoulder and walked outside into the spring air. Joe walked over to the pig pen not far away and gingerly put Gil down on the ground in the pen. Immediately, all the little pigs rushed over to him and asked him what he saw or heard. Gil told them all about getting into the farmhouse and having the coat fall on him and hearing the farm people’s conversation about getting the ox and learning the farm people’s names, Joe and Lauren. They all started panicking when they heard the news about the ox.

“We have to find a way to stop them,” Gil heard Tally yell.

“This is a disaster!” he heard Fargo shout.

“Silence!” Pete yelled.“We must brainstorm.” All the pigs sat down to think. After a while, no one had any ideas. So they all walked over to the very far side of the pen where the barn’s wall was.

“Excuse me?” Gil said. He was talking to the extremely old barn owl, who lived in a hole in the barn wall.

“Yes, is that young voice speaking to me?” said a very low voice

“Yes, it is I think,” Gil said with confidence. “I am Gil, the pig who lives in the pen next to this barn.”

“Ah, what do you need?” came the voice again.

“I need your advice.”

“What kind of advice do you need?”

“Well,” Gil said, “I heard some troubling things. I was in the farmhouse where I should not be, and the farm people were in there talking. They said, they were going to get an ox.” He looked back at all his brothers and sisters. They all nodded approvingly.

“I see,” said the owl, “that is a problem. I remember way back when this farm had an ox. He was not very pleasant.” There was a long pause. “Well, show the farmer you can be the ox, that you can pull big things.”

“Ok,” said Gil.

“That will be all.”

The next morning, Gil woke up early so he would not miss the farmer coming with the compost. Then Gil woke up all the little pigs. He had a plan that might work. Gil saw the farmer coming out of his house with breakfast. Gil, Martha and Fargo went in the front of the compost trough and Tally and Pete got the back. Gil, Martha and Fargo pulled and Tally and Pete pushed. It moved and the farmer just stared and said, “Oh my, these little pigs are as strong as an ox!”

All the pigs stepped back triumphantly. The farmer was surely would not get the ox now that the pigs showed him that they could be the ox. Then the farmer dumped the compost in the trough and the pigs ate. Just then the farmer's wife called out from the house, “When do have to pick up the ox?”

“Soon. At 9:00.” Joe replied.

“Ok,” said the farmers wife, “Because at 10:00 I have to use the car to see Matty for brunch.”

A chill ran through the pigs. They were going to get the ox now! There was no time to prove that the pigs could be the ox. They tried once and they failed! This was a disaster. All the pigs just sat down in sadness. There was going to be a mean, nasty ox and it was because of them. They were the only ones that could have changed the farmer’s mind about getting the ox.

part two: the ox

It was all very new to the ox--the stall, all the other animals.

He liked it very much. But none of the animals talked to him. They all looked so scared of him. He didn't know why. He was a nice young ox. He had been there almost all day and no one had talked to him. They all backed up to the edge of their stalls and didn't talk. He missed his mom at his old farm. So he just spent the rest of the day eating the hay that the farmer left for him to eat.

Gil woke up so early in the morning the only other one awake was the ox. He had seen the ox come but had not talked to him yet. He didn't want the ox to make fun of him. He would just be mean. Gil sat down and tried to sleep again. Just as he was falling asleep. He heard a deep but a young voice.

“Your lucky,” said the voice. “You have friends, you have fun. I never have any fun. Nobody ever talks to me. Everybody is scared of me. Nobody utters a word to me.” Gil lifted his head slowly and looked at the ox. “Everybody thinks that oxes will be mean to to them. But that’s not true. I'm just a sad nice ox that nobody talks to.”

“Oh well, I’m sorry if you feel that way,” said Gil. “I never thought of it that way. I thought oxes were mean bullies because they're so big and could do so much destruction. That they would ruin the farm. By controlling and bullying everybody.”

“Well that’s just it. Lots of them are mean. But some of them like me and my mother and a few others, aren’t.”

“Well why don't you talk to somebody?” Gil said.

“Well, I'm talking to you,” said the ox.

“That's true,” said Gil as he was standing up and walking to the wall to the side of the barn. He started digging under the wall.

When he got to the other side, he looked up at the ox.

“You know, pigs are amazing diggers.”

“Really did you know, oxen and bulls are related?” By now the sun was coming up and it was beautiful. They sat there watching it together.

“Well, I better get going,” Gil said.

“I guess so. Hey, see you later? What's your name?”

“Gil. What's yours?”

“Eli. How old are you?”

“5 months.”

“Me too.”

“I better go, bye.”

Later that day, all the pigs were playing hide and seek. Which was not very fun because there was only a barrel of nothing to hide behind and the trough to hide in. But Uncle Jerry never let the pigs in the compost trough because he said that they would get compost all over themselves and soil the food. So Gil did not want to play. He decided to go and talk to his new big friend, Eli the ox. His hole he dug earlier was still there so he slipped under the fence. Eli was sleeping.

“Hey,” he whispered. “Hey, you awake?”

“I am now. Who is this?”

“It’s Gil. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Why? No one ever wants to talk to me.”

“Well I do. I think you're nice, and you listen. Nobody ever listens to me. Like if we’re playing a game, and I don’t want to play that game. I will say, “I don't want to play this game. Let’s do a race. It’s like they don't hear me. They just keep on playing.”

“I’m sorry, want to play a game? How about I-spy?”

“What's I-spy?”

“I-spy, you don't know what I-spy is?”

“No. I don't. How, do you play?”

“Well, one animal says, ‘I spy with my little eye a color.’ Then you have to find out what that color is. Want to play?”

“Ok, you start.”

“Ok, I spy with my little eye something brown.”

“Is it the barn wall?”

“No.”

“Is it the trough of water?”

“Yeah!”

“You know Eli, you’re one of my really good friends. I want to do things with you more often.”

Gil and Eli lived in the farm for a long time after that and spent a lot of their time together. Tally never talked to them because she thought it was preposterous that a pig and an ox were friends. Fargo seemed to only talk to them sometimes but always seemed to dislike Gil. Martha was still Gil’s friend and accepted that Eli and him were friends. Gil and Eli. Eli and Gil.

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