He nodded. “Just thinking about what a good life this is.”
She smiled. “And about your former team?”
He nodded. “Caden would have loved it here.”
“Is that the one you called Maki, the one who died in the explosion?”
He nodded, and Mara hugged him. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Thanks. Me too. He wouldn’t want anyone to dwell. He’d likely tell us to suck it up and get on with living. But he’d like knowing we still think about him.”
“And spreading his story so he’ll live on with you and everyone who hears about him.”
Seth tightened his arms and let her relentless optimism and essential goodness seep into him.
When he stepped back, she smiled. “Let’s see what our Maki is up to. I want to take pictures of them and put up the sheet with their names on it soon. That way, everyone can use their names when they talk to them.”
“Pretty sure they don’t respond to their names like dogs.”
Mara shrugged. “Neither does Fritter, not yet anyway. We’re going to use them anyway, so they’ll know they’re special.”
He chuckled as they entered the chicken yard. They’d bought an automatic door for the entrance to the coop. It sealed the door an hour after sunset, and opened at six so the hens could exit themselves and use the run.
It wasn’t as if Mara wasn’t up well before six to do her baking, but he didn’t want her wandering the farm on her own. He was glad he’d spotted her on his walk to the inn this morning.
Sure enough, the chickens were wandering the run along the back of the enclosure. A headcount showed one missing, but even as he thought it, another hen poked her head out of the coop and walked down the ramp with exaggerated steps.
Mara clapped her hands. “Look at her go. The bars across the ramp help her, just like the articles said. It’s perfect.”
Currently, the hens needed a human to open the door from the run to the rest of their yard. That was an added layer of safety. Predators would need to enter the enclosure, and then pass through the next wall of hardware cloth to reach the birds. That would hopefully give them time to get to the coop, or for humans to arrive.
They’d installed a few motion lights around the enclosure to deter nighttime approaches. He wasn’t sure how determined Vermont predators might be; he wasn’t even sure what those predators were, but the birds had survived the first night.
He was glad for the hens, but even happier that Mara hadn’t come across carcasses. Nothing should ruin her glow.
Seth opened the door to the storage unit they’d built at the back of the coop and scooped out a few handfuls of feed into the bowl they planned to use.
Grinning, Mara led the way inside the enclosure. “Look, Maki is at the door watching us. She knows we’re bringing her food and giving her more room to play.”
Or maybe Maki was the nosiest, but he didn’t say that out loud. Either way, it would make Caden laugh.
Mara opened the door between the run and the rest of the enclosure, then stepped back. “Come on outside, Maki. Lead the others to the yard. Let them know it’s safe.”
Sure enough, the bird pecked her head and stepped out into the yard, Johnny and Squid right on her heels.
The group of hens named after his team was all shades of that orangey-brown color, but there were enough differences to tell them apart.
The other six hens were similar in shape and size, but in different patterns of black, grey, and white.
Some of them followed Maki’s group into the yard, while others remained in the run. Seth passed Mara the bowl of feed and checked on the watering device.
As soon as Mara spread some of the feed, the entire dozen birds swarmed her. Her laughter filled up the enclosure right along with Seth’s heart. She was magnificent.
He pulled out his phone and snapped a few photos while she squatted down to play with the birds. He caught joy and wonder on her face.
Getting chickens had been a hell of an idea. Which made him realize they hadn’t even checked the nesting boxes for eggs. That had been the primary reason for getting the birds, but neither of them had thought of it until now.
Seth knew his reason.
