This week with Arlene and Jeff:
...When he called, the half-grown rooster came running. Morales picked him up, and with everyone following, walked to the nearby alcove where he tossed Junior toward the swing. Junior spread his powerful wings, banked and landed perfectly on the swing, but just stood on it as it barely moved back and forth.
"Well?" Morales said. "You're always showing off; now is your chance to show everybody what you can do."
Junior cocked his head and looked at the human for a second, then with enough understanding to realize that Morales wanted him to make the swing go, Junior rocked his body and used his wings to move the swing higher and higher.
"Oh, that is great," Selina said, giggling. "Look at him go."
It's debatable if Junior fully understood Morales words, but it was more probable that he knew the humans were watching and also that Morales wanted him to do something. Everyone was becoming tense as the swing quickly rose higher and higher on its arcs. With a final hard push and the assistance of his wings, the swing went over the top, but instead of it dumping him, Junior had figured out just how much push he needed and in exactly what direction to keep the swing going in a circle. With a hard flutter of his wings, the swing went on past its apogee and continued the loop, the rooster making a sound a bit like "whee", but that may have been the wind in his wings. Junior made a second loop, too, but before the swing reached the critical point on his next loop, he released his grip on the seat at just the right point to sail across the alcove, then banking dramatically, and with a flutter of wings, landed on Morales' shoulder.
When everyone started clapping, Junior, at first, cringed, but it only took a second for him to realize that they were doing this weird thing for him. Standing as tall as he could, he fluttered his wings, stuck out his chest… and nature stepped in. Surprising everyone, including him, Junior made his first attempt at crowing. The beginning was… okay, but about halfway through, his voice broke, much like a teenage boy trying to sing, and the last half wasn't so…masculine. If a chicken can be masculine.
Most everyone had heard a rooster crow - videos, movies and the like - so they knew, at least vaguely, what the infamous cock-a-doodle-do from a rooster was supposed to sound like, but this one just… wasn't. But, it did produce laughter.
Junior hadn't really meant to do it; nature had just decided that it was time. His second attempt was all him, though - and much worse. To him, everyone seemed to like it because they laughed, so he did his broken, squeaky cock-a-doodle-do again...
Have a goodun;
Roust