May 22, 2004

One fine, sunny day, Chuck the chick woke up, feeling bored to death. After cleaning up, he wandered into the kitchen, where Mrs Hen was making worm-stew for lunch. “Get out of my way, you brat! Before you spoil anything!” She shouted.

Chuck stomped away, feeling angry that his day had started so badly. Maybe Lucy will play with me, he thought. So he went to his sister’s room. “Hey, Lucy, lets’ play ball”.

“Can’t you see, I am studying, you stupid fool! Now go!” She screamed at the top of her voice. Chuck was now fuming with rage. Suddenly he had an idea — perhaps I can go out for a walk with Will, he thought. When he saw his brother, he asked him, “Will, can we go for a walk?” Chuck asked, expecting something quiet different than what really happened.

“Look, you stupid, good-for-nothing chicken! Already my girlfriend’s ditched me for another rooster, and now you come along to spoil my mood further. I wish you’d just runaway! Now what are you looking at me for? Get lost!”

Now this was the limit. Tears streaming down his face, Chuck decided to do just what Will had suggested — runaway. So, he began collecting his most precious belongings — an old, ragged boot, a red ball and a tattered photograph of his family. When he reached the front-door, Chuck wished that someone would come and st op him, but when nobody came, he decided to leave. Alas! everyone was too busy to notice that Chuck had run away!

After covering a little distance to no-where, Chuck felt a little lost and frightened. He didn’t know where to go. Suddenly, he heard someone crying hard. It was Alice, the duck. “Alice, what happened?” Chuck asked warmly.

“I lost my ball! Boohoo! Now I can’t play! Quack, boohooo!”

“Oh, don’t worry, you can have my ball! Now stop crying!” said Chuck and gave her his ball. Seeing Chuck’s kind gesture, Mrs Duck, who was standing nearby said, “Thank you, dear, you are the kindest chick ever! Mrs Hen must be very proud of you!” Chuck felt very happy. But he missed his family a lot.

After bidding goodbye to the two ducks, he had just reached the end of the road, when he saw old Mr Dog trying to cross the road but in vain. “Hello, Mr Dog, let me help you.” Saying this, Chuck held Mr Dog’s arm, and in a minute, they were on the other side of the road.

“Bark, Bark! Thanks very much, Chuck! You are so nice! Your family must be really proud to have you!”

This filled Chuck’s heart with immense pride. But now, he missed his family more than ever. He wanted to share all this pride with his family. Though Chuck hadn’t gone very far from his house, he already missed his family so much!

After all, home is where the heart is!

And, in Chuck’s house everyone was blaming themselves for him leaving home. “I was the one who told him to get lost, and he did!” Will cried. “No. it was me who ——” “OK, OK, stop now,” Mr Hen cut in... “Let’s start looking for him. It’s already dark, and he must be really scared!”

But they didn’t have to go very far to look for Chuck — heaped up in a small corner of the garden was Chuck!

“Oh, Chuck! Where have you been! We missed you so much! It’s so good to see you! We all love you! Never ever do that again!” Everyone cried out. That’s when Chuck realized, that running away from his loved ones was not as easy as he had thought! After all, Home is where heart is!

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