4. Plan Farm

Kuku heard a shot. Her body rattled and she stumbled over her own front paws. Was she hit? She looked to the side. She couldn’t see if the black splotches were here own or bloody wounds.

She kept running. That meant she wasn’t dying, right?

A bedroom window opened at the upper floor of the home. Elize’s curls fell out of it, long before her face appeared.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Nothing,” said Harry with clenched teeth. “Go to bed.”

But when she noticed Kuku, chased by father, she was wide awake.

Kuku looked up. She tried begging with her eyes. Elize was her only hope. She would never shoot an animal, she would care for her.

Right?

She had to moohve towards Elize.

The bedroom window closed, curtains drawn.

Kuku ran for the horses, then suddenly took a turn. An open window. Wasn’t that the bathroom? Wasn’t that were Elize had tried to keep her as a pet for a few days?

She jumped for it. Her behind was stuck, but she forced her way through and landed inside a slippery bath.

She turned upside-down and found no grip. It made her moo briefly. Hopefully nobody had heart. As if trying to ice skate on her back, she wiggled across the tiles and arrived at the door.

Just as she kicked it, the handle rotated.

Elize entered, crying. “Dad shot her! Dad sho—”

Kuku could finally scramble to her paws, thanks to the non-slippery wall.

Elize yelled. She pressed her lips closed and hugged the shivering lamb in front of her.

A sigh of relief. Kuku enjoyed the warm embrace, which included dozens of kisses between her floppy ears.

“Protect me. Tell father to let me go.”

It probably sounded like meaningless mooing to Elize’s ears.

“Please, E—li—ze.”

Kuku tried to imitate the noises of her name. She thought it a worthless imitation, but Elize breathed in sharply and looked stunned.

“You said—did you say—no you said—”

Footsteps echoed from the bowels of the building.

“Quick, quick, quick.”

She ran back to her own bedroom. Kuku followed, but had no place to hide. She didn’t fit below the bed. And surely Harry would immediately look inside the cupboard? Jumping out of the window, at this height, was a terrible idea.

Elize looked around, helpless. “Oh, I can’t put you anywhere. Sorry! I … I don’t know …”

“Not hide,” said Kuku. “Moohst convince father.”

Of course she didn’t understand.

Harry climbed the stairs and pushed open the bedroom doors. He still held his rifle.

“And now those monsters will listen!”

Elize lay in bed.

Kuku was nowhere to be found.

“Dad!?” Elize’s voice cracked. “Why do you point your gun at—”

Harry immediately dropped the gun, his cheeks flushed red.

“Child. I thought the animal was here. I thought it had attacked you.”

“No, no, I scared it. I, erm, kicked and pushed it until she went away.”

“You should have caught her,” said Harry with a sigh. He sat down at the edge of the bed and caressed her red curls.

Kuku was dying from the heat and cramped space below the sheets, caught between Elize’s legs.

“And … and then? She did nothing wrong. She can give us milk for years!”

“Animals never learn. Stupid creatures.” Harry turned around. “When the inspection returns, Kuku would betray us again. That can’t happen.”

Elize wanted to say something else. She bit her tongue and let her head, yawning dramatically, fall back on the pillow.

“Goodnight, dad.”

Kuku was done with it. Now she was caught in another cage: Elize’s tiny bedroom. Fortunately, Harry was too busy running the farm and rarely entered that room. Still Kuku hid below the sheets for most of the day, just to be sure.

It was terrible. Elize also didn’t visit often, afraid that would give her away. The girl was incredibly nervous, which Harry noticed. She claimed it was because of the “upcoming inspection”; Harry’s frown betrayed his disbelief.

Until Hess visited a few days later. Of course he was allowed to walk around the house freely.

“Harry and Elize are gone for the night. Some parent meeting at school. They question why Elize is called in sick half the time. Ha, I remember a time before school existed …”

He’d brought the animal council with him. They stood in the center of the living room, unsure where to lie down. It was a room with an impressive number of fridges and refrigerators.

The pig opened the largest refrigerator with his snout, looking for food. The chicken immediately took out a few eggs and started brooding on them.

“We thought you were dead!” said the cow. “Your parents were sad, and uncertain, and what have you been doing all this time!?”

“Elize hides me.”

This surprised the animals, once Hess had translated her words.

“She wants to earn your trust,” the pig said sharply. He’d found a few apples to put into his mouth. “To make you comply at the next inspection. That’s it.”

“I … I don’t think so?”

Kuku looked at Hess. He looked tired and old, more now than ever. “Has anyone tried to capture you again?”

He shook his head, spreading long hairs on the carpet. “But my paw was caught in a bear trap. A bear trap. In a place without bears.”

His left front paw held a deep wound. He spared it while walking.

Hess pulled the sheep off of the soft sofa and cleared his throat.

“We have an escape plan, but we lack one final part.”

“In a week, the trucks will return,” said the cow. “They moohst open the gate to let them in. If we can keep those gates open, and someone distracts Harry, we might escape with a large group.”

“I am strong enough to keep it open,” said Hess. “But how do we distract Harry? How do we prevent him from spotting a herd of animals leaving?”

Kuku stepped up to him. “We ask Elize.”

The animals grunted and groaned. The pig spoke. “Yes, sure, great, let’s ask a human to help us escape the claws of humans.”

“Elize is good.”

“Elize is a human! Who eats a tasty piece of chicken meat every night! And who wants a fresh glass of milk with her breakfast, or she’ll go into a crying fit!”

The cow took over. “Once you’re old enough, Kuku, she’ll press into your udders until you moo from the pain! While you just want to sleep!”

“Otherwise you’ll end up in the fridge too! Wrapped in plastic!” cackled the brooding chicken.

The debate seemed endless. Nobody wanted to trust Elize, but she was clearly the best person to distract Harry. She could at least talk to him.

Eventually, Hess made the call to execute the plan.

Friday afternoon. All animals were to be ready and prepared. Elize would unlock the barn. Then she’d run to Harry and yell that she’d seen Kuku, all the way at the other side of the terrain. And all that time, Hess would keep the gates from closing with brute force.

He seemed certain it would succeed. The others less so.

A car raced over the gravel. The animals cleaned up their trash and left the living room through the back exit. Only if Harry had kept a precise count would he discover some missing eggs and apples.

His angry voice was audible everywhere. “Then you’ll go to a different school! That complains less!”

“But … but I don’t want to go to a different school. My friends—”

“Then you’ll work the farm until midnight!”

Kuku heard them disagree for hours. When Elize finally came upstairs, she hugged Kuku as if she were her favorite teddy bear.

Her tears soaked the cow’s fur. “The only thing I love, all I ever loved since I was a baby, was being a farmer. Farmer Elize!”

She said it happily, like a presenter introducing the famous Farmer Elize, but it sounded like sad sniffling. “And now he makes me hate it. Because … because it’s work.”

The hug intensified. “He’ll take everything away from me. I won’t let him take you away!”

Kuku didn’t understand a word of it, but she felt Elize’s love and fell asleep enveloped by it.