Short Stories

The Pig

A/N: This story is a little confronting, it was another school project and we had a line we had to put in the story and it had to also include an animal and some sort of explosion. Don't come at me for this I love animals I just thought it is a bit of a funny story so here's the first bit.

I slowly pulled the remnants of the pig from the chimney, the meat squishing in my gloved hands. What. a. day. I have never in my life had to do this before and I hope I never need to again. I pull a brush from my bucket and scrub some of the bricks. I guess I deserve it, with what I did and all, but it was a harsh punishment.

The fair had been fun, with fairy floss and hotdogs on sticks. There were even more rides and stalls than there had been the year before. My best friend Diggs and I had been scouring the carnival for the past hour looking for prizes we could win, we already had an assortment of goods, some we won, some we bought, and others we did neither. I had a bright blue and pink stuffed octopus under one arm and a big bucket of popcorn in the other. Diggs was drowning in his own treasure, he had a giant panda trapped against his back using a backpack we had won at another stall, his pockets were stuffed with plastic necklaces and rings, his left arm was balancing nearly ten smaller stuffed animals and in his right arm was the most colourful (and largest) slushie I had ever seen.

"Oi Sammy!" Diggs turned so fast that a little purple unicorn tumbled out of his arms and across the grass. "We haven't been down there yet"

I tried to make out where he was pointing, which was hard considering how much he was carrying.

"Diggs, that's just the veggie stalls, unless you wanna win a potato or the world's biggest pumpkin we should avoid it" I shook my head.

Diggs thought for a second, a considerably long second but a second all the same.

"I'd love to have a world-champion pumpkin"

"Mate, it'd be a waste of time, look at all these other stalls!"

He flashed me a rainbow smile and started off towards the farmers' stalls. I followed along, the loud sounds of the festival growing quieter the further we went.

I was surprised by how many people were around, looking at parsnips, trading broccoli for cauliflower, and arguing over who had the best veggie patch. Two older farmers were so fired up over whose wheat was the most golden I thought they were going to start punching one another out. I got so caught up in their squabble that I lost Diggs in the sea of people.

"Diggs, Diggs! DIGGS!"

I pushed farmers and old ladies to the side, trying to find my friend. I frantically searched every stall until I got to the end of the row. It was incredibly muddy and there was only one dark little stall left that everybody was avoiding. Diggs stood there fixated on something. I rushed over and pushed his shoulder.

"You're such an idiot you know that? I didn't know where you'd run off to"

When he didn't respond I looked down at the thing he was so focused on. A pig was rolling around in the mud that coated the floor of the barn-like stall. It was pink with a few little black dots across its face. The pig looked like it wasn't fully grown yet, but it wasn't a baby.

"Diggs, it's just a pig, what's gotten into you?"

He turned to me slowly.

"Dude"

I stared at him confused.

"What?"

"I just bought that pig"

I stared at my friend dumbfounded.

"You what!?!"

He shook his head as a tall wiry farmer came over. The man looked like he had been rolling around with the pigs, his denim overalls were caked in mud, and I couldn't tell if he had a beard or he had put his face in a pig trough. The farmer came over and started emptying Diggs' pockets, ridding him of every prize we had won today. His stuffed animals, the chocolate buttons he had swiped from the lolly stall, even the panda and the backpack. I stood and watched as Diggs was stripped of his pride until there was nothing left but him and his enormous slushie. The farmer brought the pig over and handed it to Diggs. It took us a second to comprehend what had just happened when the farmer spoke up.

"What are you two still doin' standin' there?"

That's when we caught up. We took off down the path dodging partiers and vomiting children. I ditched my popcorn bucket as we ran, covering a little girl in my buttery treat. As we hit the road we slowed down until we were strolling. The pig was squirming in Diggs' arms and he was equally as wiggly.

"Sammy man, I gotta go"

"What?"

"I gotta go, man"

"Oh for the love of- give me the pig"

I grabbed the pig and put it under my right arm, trying to keep it as far from the octopus as possible. I waited on the side of the road for Diggs to finish up, watching as the pig sniffed around my hand. I had no idea what we were going to do, we had a pig, and I know Diggs didn't have the room for it and my mum would flip it if I brought home yet another stray. Diggs waddled up from the fence and grabbed the pig from my arms.

"I think I know what we should do"

I raised an eyebrow at my friend, wiping what I hoped was mud off my shirt. Diggs wasn't the brightest soul on earth and his ideas showcased his abilities perfectly.

"And what would that be?"

He swapped the wriggling pig from under his left arm to under his right.

"We could take it to your barn, not the red one, the old brown one down the back" He pulled the pig closer to him. "We could take it food scraps and a water trough from the horses, they've got more than enough"

I stopped walking and took in a surprised breath. I started choking on my spit, wheezing and spluttering. Diggs dropped the pig and started slapping me on the back.

"Jeez mate, what's the matter"

"You. Actually. Had. A. Decent. Frickin'. Idea" I managed to get out between breaths.

"How rude"