Peeking

It was Christmas Eve and Peggy was in her room trying to fall asleep and not doing a very good job at it. She decided to slip out of bed and tiptoe across the floor to peek out her door to see if Santa had come yet.

“Thats enough peeking, Peggy”, Mom said as she picked her up and took her back to bed. “One day your peeking is going to get you into trouble.”

Peggy was at it again and peeked through the cracks in the old barn door to see if anyone was there. There didn’t appear to be anyone here right now so she slowly opened the old rain swollen wooden door and stepped inside. She made her way toward the trap door. Hay was dropped through this door to the animals downstairs so the bales wouldn’t have to be carried down all the steps. These bales of hay weighed about 65 pounds each and it was exhausting work to move them.

She wanted to open that door and see if what she thought was happening was indeed happening. She grabbed the braided rope handle and slowly lifted the door.

The chickens were all dressed up and dancing. The goats were serving punch and the sheep were taking turns working the old radio looking for great dance music. The music drifted out over the top of the animals as they partied on not knowing she was there. After watching for about 20 minutes, she slowly let the trap door back down and exited the barn.

“I knew it, I just knew it”, she proclaimed out loud. “They are partying in the barn and no one is going to believe me.” This is going to be just like when she found the frogs at the pond attending a watercolor class in that old burned out building near the swamp. She had tiptoed through the tall grass, her shoes now soaking wet, and peeked though the remains of the door that was charred black. The frogs saw her and before they could hop to her, she managed to make her escape in her squeaky sneakers.

Everyone thought she was just using her vivid imagination to create something fun for herself. Peggy was an only child that longed for a sibling so she used her mind to create a sister and pets and friends and anything other thing she wanted. They were all just behind a magical door of some kind that she had created. All she had to do was peek through the door.

“Mom, the animals in the barn are having a party,” she yelled.

“That’s nice”, Mom said continuing to slice carrots knowing that Peggy was at it again.

“Who’s there?”, Mom asked, humoring Peggy.

“Oh the chickens were dancing to the music from the old radio that the sheep were turning the dial on and the goats had punch for everyone.”

“That’s just lovely”, Mom said as she moved toward the refrigerator to get some red onion to add to the carrots.

“Did you join them in a dance?” she laughed.

Peggy hung her head knowing that Mom was making fun of her.

“Never mind”, she whispered as she headed to her room.

The following day, she decided to head back to the barn to see what the animals might be doing today. She peeked through the door and slowly lifted the rope handle to see her favorite bull and cow couple all dressed up standing in front of the old black bull. The big one with the ring through his nose.

They quietly mooed several things to each other and then it appeared that they kissed. All the other animals cheered and Peggy realized that she was watching a cow wedding. She shrieked with delight and all of the barn became quiet. The animals looked up and then back at the big old bull who quietly said “It’s just Peggy. We’re ok. Come on down Peggy and join us.” Peggy spent the rest of the afternoon with the animals celebrating the wedding.

Her mother started to wonder if Peggy would grow out of these fantastic stories as she got older. “She has a great imagination”, her mom thought, “but I don’t want her to stray too far from reality.”

The following day, Peggy wandered back to the barn to see what the animals might be up to today. She grabbed the rope and pulled open the trap door. The animals were all in a circle and seemed to voting on something. Their paws, hoofs and claws were all raised in the air and just then they looked up and saw Peggy.

“Come on down, Peggy,” the old gramma sheep said. “We want to talk to you about something.” Peggy headed down the steps to the floor of the barn. The smell of wet hay always smelled so good to her. It had a very calming effect.

As Peggy made her way across the barn floor toward the old sheep, she suddenly felt very strange. Her feet hurt and her head was itchy. By the time she reached the old sheep, all the animals had gathered round and were now cheering and smiling at her.

She looked down at her feet that were gone now and replaced by hooves. She opened her mouth to speak and a lowly baaa came out. She looked frantically around the barn and the animals were still smiling at her and were now congratulating her. She was now a sheep.

Her parents, friends and neighbors spent months looking for her. She watched them every day kicking at the grass in the pastures trying to find some trace of Peggy.

After some time, they appeared to have given up on finding her and so she resigned herself to her new life with her friends in the barn.

“That’s what I get for peeking.”