Chicken Cartwheels

Some days feel like a series of miracles. The other day, I was at a local coffee shop, and took a seat at one of the counters facing the windows, between an older gentleman I’d sat next to the day before, and a woman typing into her laptop. I said hi to my friend from the day before and promptly, as I was checking out a hot guy outside, spilled my water. It didn’t get on anything important and mostly dripped onto the floor. I got up to get napkins, but I didn’t make it even halfway there when I was faced with the woman who had been sitting next to me. Smiling, she held up two hands full of napkins. “Oh my God you’re an angel,” I said as we turned back to the counter. “I was in a fancy store the other day and spilled my entire coffee,” she said as we crouched down to sop up the water. “Luckily it didn’t get on anything.” We laughed, and then the three of us - the napkin angel, my friend from the day before, and I introduced ourselves.

My new friends were Ali and John, and we settled back into our comfortable quiet, typing into our laptops. I find being around other people incredibly comforting, even if we’re all doing our own thing. I was focused on whatever I was working on when I looked out the window to see a young stylish woman carrying a white chicken under her arm like a fancy bag. I took my headphones off. “Wait wait wait, are you guys seeing this?” I said to my coffee companions. “Yes!,” Ali said, “you are not seeing things.” John hadn’t caught it. “What was it?” he asked. “A girl just walked down the street carrying a chicken!”

Eventually Ali left and after some chatter, John and I resumed our separate tasks. But soon my computer battery died, which prompted another conversation - about outlets in coffee shops. However, we quickly turned to much more complicated matters. John, who no less than two passerby had waved at through the window, apparently the mayor of Highland Park, explained that he is a former speech and debate teacher. A talker like me, John and I chatted for maybe an hour about all manner of topics ranging from overpopulation (which we both agreed isn’t really a problem) to work to family. “I feel like I’m keeping you,” he said, my bag slung over my shoulder.

I looked out the window. “Oh my God she’s back!” This time, John saw the young woman with the chicken. She had white ribbons in her hair and tied to her jeans, and in a moment of cynicism I remarked that she was probably filming something for Instagram. A man standing nearby started taking pictures of her and the chicken, and before I knew what was happening, she did a one-armed cartwheel, the chicken gently cradled in her arm. At this point, John and I both walked outside. Within seconds, he was talking to the chicken girl and I was talking to the man with the camera who was not, as I had first assumed, her Instagram boyfriend.

“I was just standing here and then she walked up with the chicken. She asked me if I wanted to hold it and was like “naw, I’m good.” I looked over to see John holding the chicken. The guy with the camera and I began talking about how young people now are so cool and have so much more information than we did at that age. We talked about how we are still working through our middle- and high- school trauma, and he recalled how the shit-talking at his New Jersey high school was so intense, he saw a paraplegic kid bullying people in the hallway. We chatted for a few more minutes and as I was leaving he held out his hand. “I’m Sean,” he said. “I’m Katy,” I replied. “See you around the neighborhood!”

I got in my car and made a u-turn just in time to see the young woman with the white ribbons and her chicken do another one-handed cartwheel in the crosswalk. Her self-contained joy was infectious. This girl really knows what she’s about, I thought to myself. If I hadn’t had confirmation from my three new friends, I might have thought she was a mirage. Not because the chicken cartwheels were so out of the ordinary (which, obviously, they are), but because of her ethereal vibes, white ribbons dancing around her as she went for a walk with her chicken. Not for Instagram, or any apparent reason, but just because.