196X We were staying for the weekend in a bed and breakfast in a farm in North Yorkshire - as it happens, in sight of Fylingdales, the radar tracking station that would help the US start a nuclear war in the right place, if necessary. At the time the site was dominated by two giant spheres. I have often thought if Fellini, say, had used the scene I describe below in one of his films, he could have used the Fylingdales spheres as further symbolism. Yet, even without a great movie director and Fylingdales, it was a strange, disturbing moment to witness, though for all I know it happens all the time.
The scene is a farmyard full of squarking, free ranging chicken. Nothing extraordinary about that. I needed them to move out the way when I drove my car back to the road.
Then one of the chicken laid an egg - and the squarking and wandering seemed to stop, like a freeze frame. The egg layer looked around. It would be anthrqpomorphic to suggest she looked defiant, but that's the feeling I got. Ridiculously I got the feeling something... I knew what was going to happen.
The chicken bent down to her newly laid egg, cracked it open with her beak, and began to eat the yoke.
Suddenly, the farmyard was full of sounds of excited screaching chicken. Half of them rushed towards the cracked egg and, fighting for a share of the action, began to devour its contents.
