Thread by @Joannechocolat

Sunday lunchtime; time to kill. You know what that means, Twitter: #Storytime.

New folk, to explain: #Storytime, in which I write a story from scratch, live and uncensored, on Twitter. And it always starts like this: "There is a story the bees used to tell, which makes it hard to disbelieve."

In a certain barnyard, the chickens were in uproar. #Storytime

The farmer had acquired some geese, and allowed them to sleep in the communal barn. #Storytime

The geese were mostly friendly, but the chickens were suspicious of the long-necked newcomers. “They will eat our eggs,” said one especially nervous red hen. “They will devour our chicks.” #Storytime

The other hens clucked anxiously. “What must we do?” they said in dismay. “These predatory geese will devour us all!” #Storytime

The geese tried to reassure them. “We are just poultry like you,” they said. “And we do not eat the eggs or the young of other birds.” #Storytime

The red hen clucked wildly. “You are nothing like us! Your necks are long, your feathers are white – even your voices are different!” #Storytime

The other hens agreed that the geese should not be referred to as poultry at all. #Storytime

The geese were indignant. Some of them hissed. The red hen flapped her wings and cried: “See, how the interlopers attack us!” #Storytime

The other hens agreed that the geese were little better than foxes. #Storytime

The red hen ventured to argue than not all foxes were harmful. #Storytime

“Foxes are maligned,” she said. “Like us, they are social animals. Like us, they love their families. Like us, they have beautiful red coats, unlike the white-feathered enemy." #Storytime

" If we were to learn from the fox," she went on, "then our barnyard would be a more ordered place, and the geese who have invaded our barn would not dare to approach us.” #Storytime

Not all the hens were convinced of this. #Storytime

However, the next time the geese approached, and the hens set up a squawk of alarm, a family of foxes came to sit on the other side of the gate. The foxes were red, just like the hens, and they sat there most politely, their tails curled up around them. #Storytime

Some of the hens looked nervous, and the geese hissed and honked with alarm, but the foxes behaved impeccably. #Storytime

“See?” said the red hen. “The foxes know how to exercise proper restraint and decorum, unlike the geese.” #Storytime

The other hens agreed that the foxes totally understood boundaries. #Storytime

The next time the foxes came to the farm, they entered the barn through a side door. They killed several geese as they slept in the hay, but the hens - who were roosting on the beam - were unharmed. #Storytime

“See?” said the red hen. “The foxes are our friends. They come to protect us.” #Storytime

The other hens agreed that the foxes were indeed their friends. #Storytime

Night after night, the foxes came. The hens lined up to watch them as they decimated the geese. Some of them even left the safety of their night-time perch to watch. #Storytime

After all, the foxes had already proved their good faith. And chickens and geese were different. #Storytime
the end

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