This Little Piggy

Third Place Winner of "Short Shots: Official Contest" , October, 2010

This Little Piggy

Paula Marie Cooper had been called Piggy since she could remember. Even at nine years old, she knew why everyone called her that. She was fat. Fat, fat, fat. She hated it. Piggy stared into the full-length mirror in her room and cried. Why did Mommy let her get this way? It was Mommy's fault for letting her eat so much. Which reminded her, she was getting a bit hungry.

Her mother called the family for breakfast, her voice piercing through the old wooded floors and walls of the farmhouse. Even Mommy called her Piggy. Just like Gramps and just like the cowboy farm hands. She would always be Piggy to them. Even if she lost a bazillion pounds, they would still call her Piggy. But one day she would run away to a place where people didn't already know her. Maybe they would even call her Paula. Or maybe Princess Paula. After breakfast, she was going on a diet. Or maybe after lunch, but soon. That was for sure.

"Sit right down, Piggy dear. I have some nice bacon and eggs for you. They're just about done," her mother said as Piggy arrived in the kitchen. Her mother always wore a red and white-checkered apron. It matched the tablecloth, which already had her usual place set. She pulled out the chair and sat down, still sniffling. "I hate myself," she blurted.

"Honey, why on Earth would you say that?" Her mother didn't turn from the stove. "What could possibly be bothering my perfect little Piggles?"

"I'm not perfect! I'm fat! And I hate being called Piggles!" She looked at her mother as the plate of food was set down in front of her. "Or Piggy, or fatty, or anything!"

"You're just healthy, sweetheart," her mother calmed. "One day you'll grow into your body and be a lovely swan. You'll see. Now eat up, and then go help Gramps with the animals."

There it was again. She was just healthy. Why couldn't her mother see that she was fat? Fat was good for the cattle. And fat was good for the hogs. But she hated being fat and she hated being hungry all the time. She would show Mommy, and Gramps, and everybody. She would lose weight and then disappear into her own secret world. She knew of a perfect place where all the people were happy. She saw it every day. She saw it when she looked through the old tire swing in the backyard. It was a happy world that only she knew existed, and she wasn't going to tell anyone.

She ate a pile of bacon and eggs, and went off to find Gramps. But first she made her way to the ancient oak in the backyard. The tree was part of the family, like a revered grandmother, watching and protecting. Its gnarled wooden base supported old branches, scarred from the decades. High limbs creaked as though threatening to break off, but they never did. And Piggy's magical tire swing moved back and forth ever so slightly, like the rhythm of a slow and ponderous heartbeat.

She rested one hand on each side of the tire, and peered through the center. She could never hear what was happening on the other side, but she could see it clearly. She saw her own yard, her own farm, and her own house, but with the most exciting twist! The cows and hogs were dressed up in human clothes, and the people were out playing in the fields! She could even see a horse dressed in what looked like a whole checkered tablecloth apron. The people were naked, and some of them were rolling in the mud and laughing! It was happy, and funny and, well, backwards! She wished she could squeeze through the tire and join that curious and wonderful world. A world where everyone played, and dressed-up animals would bring her food and take care of her. Besides, a hog would never call her Piggy, and a cow would never call her fat! She was definitely going to diet. Right after lunch.

Piggy searched the barns and farmyard for her Grandfather. She didn't want to help him. He never understood anything. She could be as miserable as she wanted, and Gramps wouldn't be any help at all. He was always complaining, the cows this and the pigs that. He didn't care about her feelings. But her mother told her to help with the animals, so she would. She found Gramps with some cowboys, loading steer onto a truck. The cowboys were helping, but Gramps was yelling at them anyway. She climbed onto the top fence rail and kicked her feet. If he wanted her to help, he'd let her know.

Gramps' voice boomed, "Go play somewhere else, Piggy." Piggy noticed the cowboys laughing, and knew it was because he called her that name. Gramps continued, "We have to get these steer to the slaughterhouse, and we got a lot of work to do."

"What's a slaughterhouse, Gramps?" Piggy yelled back.

"Don't you worry about that," Gramps said, "Just run along now."

"But why are they going? Is it nice at the slaughterhouse?"

"Yes, Dear. It's very nice. It's a much better place for the steer." Gramps wasn't even looking at her anymore. "They'll be much happier, believe me." Lucky steer, Piggy thought. She jumped down and left the men to their work, wishing she could go to the slaughterhouse too.

Piggy kicked a pinecone all the way back to the grandmother oak. She walked around and around the tree with her head down, trying to resist peering at her secret world through the swing. But she was so miserable, and those folks beyond the swing were so happy. Finally, she held onto the tire's sides, and looked. She saw people wallowing in the mud pit like it was a swimming pool, and people running in the fields. It looked like they were all laughing and playing.

And then she saw something new. Steer were dressed like cowboys, and they had a truck! They were loading people onto the truck, just like Gramps was doing with the Steer. How wonderful for them! Piggy felt a sharp pang of longing. She knew that they were going to a wonderful place, because Gramps had said it about the steer. Piggy knew she had to get through the tire swing. This could be her only chance to join the happy people on the other side. But what could she do?

Then it struck her. Mud! It makes pigs slippery, so why not me? She ran to the mud pit as fast as she could, stripping her clothes, and throwing them off to the sides as she went. She splashed between a family of hogs that squealed in protest, but Piggy didn't care. She was on a mission. She sloshed slick mud over every inch of herself, and ran, dripping, back to the swing. She dove into the middle of the tire, and got immediately stuck.

Piggy wiggled and squirmed. Her front half was sticking into the new world, and her rear was swinging in the old one. She wriggled her arms through to the front, and gasped in short breaths. She knew she had to do something. If Gramps found her, or worse yet, the cowboys, she would be laughed at forever. She just had to get through. There was no going back to that horrible life. It was all or nothing. She moved and pushed with her hands, and inch by inch, made her way forward. She watched ahead as the steer-cowboys loaded people onto the truck. Then one of them started to close it up.

"No! Wait for me!" she yelled as loud as she could. Her chest hurt as the tire squeezed in upon her. It was as though it didn't want to let her through. Another inch. And another. "Please! Don't go!" she yelled, painfully.

Then, all at once, she plopped through. It surprised her a bit, and she got off the ground and shook some mud out of her hair. She looked back at the tire swing, which rocked gently, and she craned her neck to see her old home from the new side. She turned around to face her new world, almost in disbelief, feeling like the luckiest girl ever. She did it! She used her smarts, and mud and muscle, and made it to the magical side of the tire swing.

Piggy ran toward the truck, waving her arms in the air. "Wait for me! Wait for me!" She yelled and screamed to get the attention of a steer-cowboy. One of them finally stopped and looked at her, and then opened the back of the truck. Puffing, naked, and covered in dried mud, she climbed up the ramp into the truck. She giggled as she thought about escaping from her mother and Gramps. She thought about all the torment she was leaving behind; how she got what she always wished for. With a profound sense of accomplishment for a nine-year-old girl, she was ready to start her new life. She was finally Paula. Or Princess Paula.

1531 words