Beethoven's Fifth, Country Style

The following story takes place in Bryans Road, Maryland, a truly magical hamlet akin to the mythical Brigadoon. Here, where the Potomac River intersects with a tidal tributary called the Pomonkey Creek, anything can happen. It was written by Carrie Staples, a dear friend and accomplished author with an eye for the unusual and an ear for the unexpected.

Mr. Greene moved into a house down the road and almost immediately set up a chicken coop in a corner of his expansive driveway.  He bought hens and a rooster from Marcy and Rick, the local farmers who sell fabulous eggs and produce jams and jellies. I walk twice a day, so I pass Mr. Greene's house four times each day.  Soon after the hens arrived I was greeted with a fabulous rooster call unlike any I had ever heard. He called, "Ta, Da, Da, DUH!" It sounded just like the opening to Beethoven's Fifth (Symphony), so I named him that. 

I listened attentively for his call whenever I passed and smiled joyfully each time. Then one day, he didn't call. I heard a rooster but it wasn't the same dramatic crowing. First I assumed Beethoven's Fifth had a cold or a sore throat. But he never 'got better'. My uplifting morning and afternoon melodies were gone.  For many months I thought sadly of him as I walked past the Greenes' residence.

 

Meanwhile the Mustang collector, on the circle around the corner, built two chicken coops in an area much smaller than Mr. Greene's. And he has three tiny, yapping dogs. Added to the barking dog racket were the rooster crows, causing me to wonder how their poor hens could possibly lay eggs under such stress.  All this thinking about hens took up a large part of my walks.

Then one morning, out of the blue, the unmistakable sound of Beethoven's Fifth rang out once again, coming not from the Greenes' chicken coops but from those of the Mustang collector!  His song followed me around the circle and part of the way home. I was thrilled. I assumed the Greenes had returned the overly vocal Beethoven's Fifth to Marcy and Rick and eventually the Mustang collector acquired another rooster from Marcy and Rick. And while I wish his living conditions were more hospitable, still I celebrate the joy his song brings to my walks. "Ta, Da, Da, DUH!" 

I don't know if this is what happened. It is my fantasy.  I have never actually seen Beethoven's Fifth, the rooster, only the hen houses from a distance. And my husband says I need a hearing aid.