Kevin tells a story

There once was an old man, a wanderer, a traveller. He travelled many places, far and wide. The man was a good listener. He liked to listen, and help whenever possible. Some people would talk and talk and talk, but not really say anything. The man tended to not stay too long around those types. He didn't just listen to people, sometimes he listened to things that were not usually listened to. Sometimes the moon would sing him to sleep, and the sun would boom it's welcoming joy, or the wind would whisper it's gentle encouragement, or the earth would emanate to him it's love. That was one of the best reasons for travelling. 

The man can talk to nature more easily than human beings. Nature knows what it is, a tree knows what it is, the earth knows what it is. Humans think they know what they are, but they don't. 

One day the man was walking along the coast of a land far away. He walked with his staff, along golden beaches and up along cliffs. He walked until he came across an old tree near the edge of a cliff. The man sat down to rest and admire the view. He felt the urge to stay there and keep watch for something. As the man was a good listener, it didn't take long for him to hear the story of the tree. The man felt a great sadness, a beautiful sadness. The tree told him a story. A long time ago there was a beautiful young girl and a handsome fisherman. They played in the sun, walked along the cliffs, just like the man had, and sat and watched the sunset from underneath the tree. The girl would wave to the fisherman as he set off to sea, and look out for his return from under the tree. She used to sit there waiting for him to come home. One day she sat under the tree waiting. One day turned into a week. And week after week, lonely sunset after lonely sunset, waiting. She promised to stay and lookout for the young man until he came back. And there she stayed since. Just because the man listened, really listened, the energy could let go. And it did. The sadness lifted and and a fresh breeze rustled the branches of the tree. The man felt a great calmness and watched the sunset over the ocean. It was time to move on. He's probably still out there, wandering.

Chapter 11

Filthy Pigs

It was a glorious day! The sun was shining and just a few lovely fluffy white clouds in the sky (which Kev thought looked just as fluffy as his feathers!). You could call it a "mini-break" as Kevin was a little tired of the Big City so he flew out to the countryside. He thought to himself, now that he was a chicken he was a "whole little package". A little bit like a motor home in the sense that he could fly anywhere; he was warm, because he had his own permanent feather duvet. Have wings, will travel!  He exclaimed to the air. He was full of Joy! He waved at the sun, and smiled at the trees, thanked the tickley soft grass, and span in a dance as he merrily went on his way.

"Ah! Oh! Excuse me!" A voice exclaimed. "Do you have a permit?" If Kevin had eyebrows, the left one would have been near the top of his forehead by now. "A what?!?!?!" Kevin turned and said. He stood looking at a grumpy old pig. "Ah, you see, you need a permit for this part of the forest; it's the law." the pig said grumpily. Kevin laughed at the smelly pig - he couldn't help himself and said "Haha, the law? What law? Who's Law?" The pig grunted even more grumpily at this and said "Oh I see, a smart Alec here eh? A law breaker AND a trouble maker eh? Well, there's only one thing for you sunny boy, jail!" Kevin was fast, real fast, and was going to fly away but even he didn't notice another pig creep up behind him and bite into his wing. OWCH! Kevin cried in shock. "You've made me bleed!" Kevin cried out. "See, resisting arrest too; it's not looking good for you sunny boy" said the pig. Off the pigs went, dragging poor old innocent chicken, Kevin.

Kevin thought he was in a real nightmare, but the unfortunate thing was he wasn't waking up. He was thrown into an overturned shopping trolley and watched over by another couple of pigs. Some other animals passed by and looked at Kevin as if he had really bad body odour or something. Kevin smelled quite nice, so he thought it must just be because he was put behind bars. This was guilty until proven innocent. He didn't break any natural laws, yet just because some authority said he was bad, then he was bad. Just to be tarnished by something makes people think you are wholly and fully a bad person? "Why don't people wake up?" he said to himself as he just couldn't believe what was going on at all. "So this is injustice?" he solemnly said to himself. The pigs started laughing, snorting as pigs do, saying "You're not so bright are you? Without laws we'd have chaos, we wouldn't have jobs, safety or security!" Kevin couldn't believe what he was hearing? "Well I'm not safe around here!" Kevin exclaimed. "That's because you break the law!" snorted the pigs in unison. Kevin felt very said. "You'll more than likely have a hefty fine as well", said a pig. The other pig started laughing. "A fine?" Kevin said. "Yeah, to punish you. And the fine goes to pay our wages as well, as we need law enforcement" said the other pig. Kevin got angry, real angry. More angry than he had ever been, even when a kid at school ran past and snatched a chocolate bar out of his hands. "YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! YOU ARE WORSE THAN ANIMALS! Animals live in harmony with nature! You filthy pigs twist nature, twist truth, and then sell it to honest, yet gullible animals! You are so far gone you can't even see how insane you are! The cage started shaking. The pigs looked at each other, startled - they had never seen anyone act like this - they usually just pay the fine with just a slight grudge. "You people won't even change - you can't!  Change is from within, change is taking responsibility, looks like you lot relinquished yours a long time ago and was long forgotten! These stupid bars can't hold me!!" Just then the cart flipped up in the air and landed in a bush. "THAT'S DAMAGE OF PUBLIC PROPERTY!" the pigs snorted at each other. Kevin flew up in the air and circled above to cool down. He perched on a tree branch and looked at the sad scene below. "I know what's going on here" said Kevin. "The real crime is that I am not you. Everything that I do - or anyone for that matter - will be wrong. Wrong just for being there. Wrong is punishable. Punishable by you, the pig, as you the pig have the power, and you are obviously 'right'." The pigs looked at each other and started laughing. "What are you talking about?!?!?!" the pigs snorted. "Ha! Well at least I can go back to where I'm safe. It is pointless talking to pigs like you, utterly pointless. If you stood next to each other your IQs might get into double figures! The only solution is to move on, to live in a place where a disease like you hasn't infected!" And with that Kevin flew away - heading for the grey foggy haze in the distance.

It felt like every centimeter of distance between Kevin and that place made him feel 10 times better. He started laughing at the experience he just had. His wing hurt a lot; but he knew it would mend soon enough. "They can damage physically - but they can't come near me mentally or spiritually!" Kevin exclaimed.

Kevin landed on a ledge of a beautiful building in London. He sat and began to finally. really relax. "OI!" cried a policeman below. "You're trespassing on government property!" Kevin looked down at the familiar sight and sighed, "Oh FFS." Kevin flew off and decided that no matter what was going on, the main thing was that he was happy within himself. He hadn't compromised what was real to him and his inherent feeling of what is "right". He decided that "others have the power of choice of what they choose to believe". He landed on a busy street and low and behold a pound coin on the floor! He picked it up and noticed a shop that sold lottery scratch cards, so decided that a) the coin came by chance, b) there was no way of finding who dropped it c) Lottery was a charity (in Kevin's world that is) where money goes to good causes, d) If he wins he will do something benevolent with it. He wasn't one to gamble, but hey, the odd go can be fun. Off he went and bought the shiniest and most colourful card he could find. He scratched it off furiously and woohoo! He won £20! He flapped around with excitement. He took his winnings and left the shop. It wasn't long until he saw a few homeless people in a doorway (seriously, in this day and age) and decided to buy everyone pizza! They munched and munched and Kevin enjoyed the pizza crust as cheese didn't quite suit him.

no matter if you're down
life can turn around
its a roller coaster ride
thats full of slips and slides
rejoice in the wealth
of being yourself
being true to your goals
no matter how life rolls

Onwards and upwards everyone!

Chapter 10

Kevin the Programmer

It was the most amazing thing Kevin had ever seen. "Even more magical than waking up as a chicken!" he exclaimed. "Well, not quite as good as that", he then said. Kevin was watching a girl in the street using some sort of device, like a phone, which projected in 3 dimensions anything you were interested in. You could ask it anything at all and it would understand it and recreate it in 3D. Totally amazing! The 3D projection looked almost real. It could even show you the inner working parts of things, so you could explore any part of it. And the colours, they were incredible. Kevin thought to himself that there is hardly any difference between technology and magic. He squawked very loudly "I MUST HAVE ONE!"

This was Kevin's new challenge for himself - to learn all there is about technology. But how could Kevin learn about it? He was a brilliant keyboard surfer, but he didn't know about the internals of the machine. Kevin didn't think colleges or universities would accept a chicken either - well maybe to do experiments on. Kevin didn't like that idea and said to himself "nobody is putting soap in my eyes". "But I must learn how to do this!" Kevin exclaimed. The question was how? From where? And potentially from whom? Kevin hesitated for a second and thought about school and his time there. The teacher would talk and talk using long words Kevin didn't understand. By the end of the class he was nearly unconscious and certainly didn't feel as bright as he did before he went in. What was the point of that? And exams, what is the point of those? Not even worth talking about. Another thing school did was dictate most things for him. It told him what classes he would study, told him where to be and at what time. That made him feel disempowered about this new idea of learning for himself. Plus, schools and universities seem to think that it takes a long time to learn something, like silly years. Kevin learned things fast, like how to ride a bike and play football, and also music and art, how to be a writer and reporter - Kevin learned these in days. So Kevin had a lot of experience of school, so at least he knew what not to do. It wasn't all bad, there were some good things at school that he could use in life, so it wasn't all bad. One teacher used to talk about dictionaries and the importance of looking up new words (even sometime looking up words we think we know). One time Kevin was reading a book called "The Wizard Dancer" by James Duke Durrell. The author had included definitions for all words used in the book, like "Gerunjerurrel". The book had it defined like this: Gerunjerurrel (gerr-un-jer-urrel) - "A small magical creature that is a good friend to its owner, but plays tricks on everyone else." So to learn the word Kevin started making up sentences that used it; "That is my gerunjerurrel", "You stole my gerunjerurrel", "Your gerunjerurrel wears hot pants!". Kevin laughed and thought "learning is fun". So that is one thing to keep in mind, but sometimes we need a person to learn from - someone good who has learned a lot. Like a mentor. Kevin began his quest to find a mentor, and soon was on the trail of a great inventor - Professor Tinkle.

Professor Tinkle was working in his laboratory when he heard a tapping on the window. "Oh, that's a funny looking pigeon" said Professor Tinkle. Kevin flew through the open window and exclaimed "I'm not a pigeon, I'm a chicken!" The Professor was flabbergasted. "I heard you're the best programmer in the business and I would love to learn how to make amazing things" burst Kevin. "Well, usually my students fill out an application but I can tell you are a very industrial young chicken" said Professor Tinkle. "Consider yourself enrolled!" he exclaimed. "First things first, lets teach you binary and Boolean logic, the basics of electronics, transistors, And gates, Or gates!" "Wooohooo!" squawked Kevin. They got started straight away and Kevin made notes as he went along (these will be available soon as Kevin is working on his own website as well as a game now). Not only did Kevin learn about programming, logic, problem solving, how to test, he also realised he knew a lot about project management, based on his past experience. He is a total whizz.

It got to a point where Kevin had learned enough from Professor Tinkle that he could start making things. Part of the course was to build something for a real company. These were chosen quite at random, some were for amazing companies, however, some were for not so good organisations. Kevin didn't know it at the time, but his client was a not such a good one. It was for the government. Kevin went along happily and eager to build something great. He met the people involved and they told him about the situation they had.

We have 1000 parking spaces in the centre of our town. The parking is free at the moment. We have 20,000 people who live in the entire city. At the busiest times we have over 1500 people looking for parking spaces. As you can see this is not ideal, so we need a new system. We want a computer system to start charge people for parking. We estimate this system to cost 1 million pounds. We will need to employ parking enforcement staff. We estimate 50 inspectors, with wages of £20,000 per year, 12 managers at £30,000 per year, 30 administrators at £19,000 per year, running costs of the system and any upgrades to be £100,000 per year. So as you can see, we will need to charge people. This didn't make sense to Kevin. "How much would it cost to build a multi story car park? And how much to have an improved public transport system so people wouldn't have to drive into town? I don't think you have thought this through. Charging people for things they should be free to do is not constructive, or leads to any productive or gainful activity. All staff involved would not be very happy as they would not be working on anything worth while. And that is how I feel. Sorry, Kevin the Chicken is not the bird for this project. I hope you take notice of my recommendation, but from experience that is not usually the case. Best of luck anyhow." And with that Kevin flew out the window and headed for Professor Tinkles college.

"I'm sorry professor Tinkle, that project is not for me." Professor Tinkle replied "Kevin, I respect your judgement, and not every project fits the bird. We haven't many options for you now, however you can go off and build something yourself." So off Kevin goes, starting to work on Apps and Games.

"It is not the most exciting world when you are sitting in a room all night, tapping away" Kevin thought. "It's only exciting when you write some code that works, or release something that really takes off."

Kevin is still in his room, working away. He promises to finish this story when the project is released. But the question is, when is the release date? And will it be released on time? There is no budget so that won't affect anything. Will something similar be released before Kevin's and steal all the glory? Who knows in technology world. But watch this space.

Chapter 9

Kevin the journalist

Kevin had only been living in his part of the woods for 3 days when he first heard the noise. Right in the middle of the night he was awoken by "bbrrrrm, crank, crunk, splash, crank, squeak, bbrrrrm." 10 minutes later a smell that came from somewhere Kevin didn't want to know where, filled Kev's nest. "OH MY GOD!" Kevin squawked as he ran around holding his beak. No amount of flapping got rid of the smell so Kevin had to fly away and come back a few hours later. It was then that Kevin discovered what was going on. Some nasty people had came in a big truck and dumped a huge amount of chemicals and waste materials right there in the woods. "This is unacceptable! Something needs to be done about this!" Kevin declared. But what could be done? Maybe the police would help, Kevin thought. So off he went searching for the nearest Police station.

The police were more interested in a talking chicken. They were laughing at him and giggling to themselves. They also asked Kevin if he had a police record, "the sheer cheek of it!" Kevin exclaimed. When Kevin started getting angry they laughed even more. "What sort of world do we live in?" Kevin sadly said to himself. "I'm reporting some terrible goings on and you are behaving like children" was only met with more laughter and "aahhhh"s. This was no good. If the police were not going to listen or do anything, then someone else will, Kevin decided. Kevin left the police station and was quite relieved to do so.

As Kevin was walking along the street he passed a newsagents. There were lots of newspapers on display and that made Kevin think. "Ah hah! Maybe I should tell the newspapers about it?" said Kevin to himself. The people should know about the goings on recently, and then they will do something about it, after all, the people have the power. He decided to ask the newsagent for the address of the best newspaper. The news agent obliged and off Kevin went.

"I wan't to see the big chief head boss of this newspaper" Kevin said to the receptionist. The receptionist must have liked Kevin as she said she couldn't let him see the "big chief head boss" of the newspaper as he was just the owner, but she would introduce him to the chief editor instead - which would be much better anyway. She picked up the telephone and told the Chief Editor that he really should come to the reception desk, there was a very special visitor here to see him.

The Chief Editor was a very busy man, time was an asset he savoured and was shared sparingly. However, when Sheila the receptionist spoke like this he knew it meant one thing - a very important guest. 

It wasn't long before the chief came down and introduce himself. Kevin felt like he was in the middle of a tornado, but a nice one. The chiefs language painted pictures in Kevin's mind, and Kevin admired this quality immensely. Kevin couldn't get a word in edge ways. "I've met a lot of chickens in my time Kevin, but never one like you" exclaimed the chief mid-flow. "Kevin, tell me, can you write?" the editor bursted. Before Kevin finished his sentence the editor exclaimed "yes! Good, Kevin I have a story for you to report on. And we will do a great story on you." Kevin splurted "I already have a story to report!" Kevin started then was Immediately interrupted with "You see Kevin! You're a natural! Come let me introduce you to the team!" And off they went to the top floor.

The entire floor was filled with telephones ringing, chatter and banter, and the crunching of keyboard keys. Kevin was introduced to lots of people like a video fast-forwarding, until they came to the top reporters desk. It was more like a hospital Kevin thought as the woman was surrounded by plastic, in a mini plastic room that surrounded her desk, with a large pipe that went out of the window. The reporter was addicted to cigarettes. She looked about 75 but she was only 24. It was illegal to smoke cigarettes inside any building, but somehow the woman managed to get her space classified as it's own building, like an airport being international land, just so she could smoke and write at the same time. She was that good at persuasion and getting what she wanted. "Welcome to the team Kevin" the woman growled. It must be all those cigarettes she smoked, thought Kevin. "I will be your mentor and get you up to speed" she continued. "My secretary will get you set up." As soon as she had finished she put her head down and continued typing at an incredible rate. The secretary took Kevin to his new desk. He had all the kit set up for him. A big shiny computer, telephone, the lot. Just think, he was sitting in a tree 1 hour ago.

Kevin got stuck straight in writing the article about the dirty polluters. Kevin had used a computer before, when he was a boy, but now, the home keys were not home anymore. "asdf" and "jkl;" just didn't cut it. Without fingers Kevin needed to use the 6 feather tips on his wings, and use his right foot for the space bar. It wasn't long before a machine gun tapping sound started overtaking the other office tapping. Chicken brains may be small, but they work faster than human brains.  He was able to do 180 words a minute. The office workers started gathering around his desk staring in awe. The big chief saw through the blinds in his private office and decided to take a look at what was going on. Within a couple of minutes of the chief coming over Kevin had finished his piece. The whole floor applauded at Kevin's first article. Kevin was elated and did a little dance on his desk. The editor asked Kevin to email him the article, and his next job was to write an article on something very important. Kevin couldn't wait for his article to be printed.

3 days passed by and Kevin's article about the dirty polluters hadn't appeared in the newspaper. However, 3 articles Kevin wrote about "current affairs" had appeared. The stories Kevin wrote just reported about bad things that were happening, and the solutions Kevin had suggested in the post had been removed by the editors. This is not good, Kevin could smell a rat - or a fox or two. Kevin burst into the editors office. "I'd like to have a word with you" demanded Kevin. Since working at the newspaper Kevin didn't beat around the bush. "I've written 4 articles so far, my first one has been swept aside. The other three are doing no good for society, only giving people bad news and upsetting them. This is not what I signed up for." "Kevin, Kevin" began the editor, "you have a lot to learn about our business" he continued. "We are all a demographic, a statistic based on our age, education, location, and many other variables. We are a stimulus response mechanism conditioned from day 1. Our emotions are played to, dreams are given to us that are not ours, false standards and metrics of success. All these things the media uses to suggest and direct your views of the direction we want society to go. 90% of the views people have are not their own. The people don't want to know the truth, or hear good things. They want to be told how bad things are, because they "know" things are bad. If we told them good things they wouldn't buy our papers. It makes them feel good that the bad things that are happening are happening to others and not themselves." Kevin was stunned. "So newspapers just want to make people upset and helpless? And you plug ways people can "do something about" the bad things they see such as "make a donation" or "let the government bomb places". This is not good at all! This cannot be right?" Kevin said. The editor said "Kevin, I'm afraid it is." Kevin couldn't believe it, and felt very sad. "Well, this might be the way things are now, but it is not something that I am going to contribute to, and it is not how things are going to be. I'm leaving. And I'm going to find a newspaper that fits in with my ideals." Kevin didn't even listen to what the editor had to say as he flew for the closest window.

Kevin did find a newspaper that did good things, the "Feel Good Times". It is a newspaper that reports the best of mankind, the resilience of the human soul, paradigms of ethical behaviour, respect and integrity. All of the wonderful and good things happening around the world. The newspaper itself actively calls to arms and organises groups, petitions, boycotts. Generally doing something about it. It actively brings around positive change. They published his article on the dirty polluters, and the people reported the company who dumped in the woods. He continues to regularly contribute to the "Feel Good Times."

Chapter 8

Kevin had a dream

There were lots of people in a huge pile, all holding on to each other very tightly so they looked like a single entity. They were all complaining about how others were holding themselves down, that they individually were poor little people who have no power, and the problem was that others were holding them back. I went up to them and said "You are all holding on to each other, just let go of each other and you will be free." They all snarled at me saying I was "stupid", "just a chicken" and "what would I know". I noticed a man who was standing on his own, with a smile on his face like a cunning fox. He came over and started agreeing with the people and saying that the real problem was with everyone else and not the people individually. The people liked this, and they held on to each other even harder. I stated getting angry with the man and told him to tell the truth to the people, then the man told the people that I was their enemy, and they believed him. I felt sad and had to fly away. Then I woke up. Sometimes you have to "pick your battles" - meaning that it is good to "win" and bad to "lose", so choose the things you will win at. Choose things that will challenge you, not break your heart. Kevin felt happier and more determined now, so the dream didn't affect him, he learned from it.

Chapter 7

The hypnotising chicken

One day, Kevin was walking down a busy street in the city centre. "Young man!" A voice said to Kevin. Kevin looked up and saw a very smartly dressed man who had a funny grin and who's eyes were sparkly. The man said a few words to Kevin whilst waving his hand in front of Kevin's eyes. Then the man asked Kevin to think of a number, a colour, and a type of job. "4532, green, policeman" said Kevin. The man waved his hand around and then pulled out of his pocket a small envelope and asked a woman who was watching to open it and read it aloud. The woman opened the envelope and started reading. "4532, green! A policeman!! OMG!" she said excitedly. The audience clapped in amazement and Kevin couldn't believe it too. "That's AMAZING! What am I thinking now" said Kevin as he closed his eyes and thought really really hard, picturing a cabbage. The onlookers all started laughing. The man noticed this and had a thought of his own, maybe he could use Kevin in his act? "I can't say in public" the man said. The audience laughed. The man continued "Some sort of leafy vegetable" the man said. Kevin's eyes opened wider than they had ever been opened before, and he had seen some amazing things. "A cabbage!" the man exclaimed. The audience laughed. Kevin squawked. The man smiled. The audience clapped and put lots of money in the mans hat. Once the show was over, people started leaving, but Kevin was really interested in how the magician could do what he did. Kevin was just going to ask the man a question when the man said to Kevin "how would you like to be in a show I'm working on?" "WOOOWWEEE!" exclaimed Kevin. "Will you teach me how to do what you do?" said Kevin. "Of course I will" the man smilingly answered. Off Kevin and the man went to start training and rehearsing for the new show.

"The first thing to learn about the mind Kevin, is that whatever you focus on, you get" said the man. Kevin didn't really know what the man meant, and it must have shown because the man continued "Let me demonstrate". He started to make something, he got a pencil, tied some string around the end, then tied a coin to the other end of the string, making a pendulum. He gave the pencil end to Kevin, telling him to hold on to it for a moment. He then got a sheet of white paper,  a very thick marker pen, and he drew a large cross it and placed it in front of Kevin. "Kevin, hold the pencil at the end, and put the pendulum about an inch over the cross - make sure you don't rest your wings on the table." "OK" said Kevin. Kevin did, and the man asked Kevin to choose one of the lines on the cross, and to only think about that one. Kevin did, and a few moments later the pendulum started swinging back and forth over the line that Kevin was thinking about! "WOOWWEEE!" said Kevin. Now the man drew a big circle surrounding the cross. The man asked Kevin to concentrate on the circle. Again Kevin did so, and to his amazement the pendulum started swinging in a circle! Kevin was amazed. The man explained that people are really very powerful, and they create the things and the world around them. But, most of the time people have been convinced that they are weak, irresponsible, and that things around them just happen, and that is "just the way it is". When people believe that they are powerless, you can convince them of things which aren't really true. You can become an "authority" - like a government. Kevin got excited because he remembered the Fox, and that he did that type of thing to the little chickens. "So is what we are doing with our mind tricks bad then?" Kevin asked the man. "Well", said the man, "it depends on the intention. If you are knowingly trying to make someone believe something false, when you know it is true, or make them do bad things in the name of good, then that is bad. What we are doing is using it for entertainment. We can play around with it for fun, doing nobody any harm." "Good point" said Kevin. "So why aren't people getting what they want in life? If they really create the world around them? My parents were always saying they wanted more money but they never got it." "Well, they got exactly what they focused didn't they?" said the man. Kevin was confused again. The man was smiling. "You said they were always saying they wanted more money, correct?" Kevin nodded. "Well that is exactly what they got wasn't it? They were always making it so they wanted more money. They were always saying they wanted more money, so they created around them a scarcity of money. What they created was a state of wanting, and that money was hard to come by for them." Kevin still didn't quite get it. "OK, say you want an ice-cream" "ICE CREAM! I LOVE ICE CREAM" Kevin exclaimed. The man laughed and continued "if you say I really want an ice-cream, will you get one? Will it magically arrive?" "No" Kevin said. "OK, so how do you get an ice-cream?" the man said. "Well, I guess I say I will have an ice cream, that there is one in the shop that is mine, and that I need money to buy it." "Good!" the man exclaimed. "You see, you said you already have the ice-cream, it's yours already." Kevin sort of understood. "You mean I have to pretend?" said Kevin. "Yes" the man smilingly said. "Everything is pretend really. Things become serious if you pretend to get serious one minute, and then forgot that you actually pretended to be serious in the first place." Kevin's eyes went a bit funny, but Kevin understood. He was always playful and could imagine amazing things to happen in the future, and most of them did happen - apart from the magical unicorn running through a rainbow. But maybe that will happen, somewhere. So Kevin started to have lots of fun with this new idea. It opened a whole universe of potential. He learned not to imagine the world in the future somehow "becoming" nicer, but he decided that the world is a nice, peaceful, happy, loving and caring place now. It is already here.

Kevin learned lots from the man, and learned really fast too. They put together an amazing show where they did amazing things. At the start of the show Kevin would fly down on a magic carpet. Kevin also did a knife throwing act, whilst standing on a tightrope blindfolded (he had excellent balance as a chicken). They both did mind reading tricks with the audience, and the girls loved Kevin. As a finale, an explosion would happen and the man and Kevin would disappear. They started to become really popular.

One day the government secret agency found out what the man and Kevin had learned about the mind and people, and wanted to learn it too, so they could use it to "protect people", they said. Kevin and the man were taken in a car to visit the agency, and when they got there, they were told that they couldn't leave. Kevin and the man thought that the agency were going to do experiments on them and decided that they would use their magic powers to escape. It was easy to hypnotise the agents because they were not very clever. And after hypnotising lots of agents on their way out, they decided to split up for a while to let things cool down. Kevin and the man said goodbye for now, and they would meet up soon. Kevin took a look around, felt which way the wind was blowing, and flew away towards the sunset.

Chapter 6

The travelling life

It was a hot day and Kevin stopped off at a nice little stream to get a drink. As he was drinking, Kevin was looking at his little face in the water when he noticed the reflection of a man on the other side of the stream. Kevin looked up and saw a friendly looking man who was smiling.

 
"Hello" said the man. "Hello I'm Kevin" said Kevin. The man said he was getting some water for a cup of tea and would Kevin like to join him. Kevin said yes as he loved tea. The man was a travelling man and lived in a caravan which was pulled by a big strong horse. It had all the comforts of a regular home except that it was on wheels and the man didn't have to pay called "tax" to the government. After they sat down to a cup of tea and a scone the man asked Kevin "so how did you end up in this part of the woods?" Kevin told the man all his adventures so far, and then asked the man the same question. The man began to tell Kevin his story.

When I was born I was different to other babies. I had these big red birthmarks on my face and all over my body.  The friends I had when I was a small child always knew me this way, so always treated me as who I am. They never treated me any different as we got older, just the friend they had always known. When I was 8 my father got a new job in a big city, so we all needed to move away. I started a new school and was looking forward to meeting new friends, but on the first day everyone was looking at me - but not in a nice way. Some started making fun of me, others kept away from me as if I had a some sort of disease. It was like that for the rest of my time at school. I really missed my old friends. I felt so alone. By the time I was old enough to leave school I couldn't wait to go. At the same time I left home too, not really sure where I wanted to go or what I wanted to be. I traveled from place to place until I stumbled upon some people who lived in caravans, like the one we are sitting in now. The people welcomed me, gave me food and water, and didn't even mention my birthmarks. It was like they looked into my heart and saw me for what I am. They taught me many many things. How nature provides for us, if you know what you are looking for. They taught me about travelling, about nature, about the sun and the moon, about the stars, about clouds and rain, about the wind, about people, and about life. They understood that people have a natural way of not liking something or someone that is very different from themselves. People tend to like other people who are similar to themselves, whether it is age, height, sex, colour of their feathers, or any other reason. We all need to learn that if we have feelings of differences, the way forward is to understand the other, to understand both sides and grow, not to stay small and feel negative.  Kevin told the man that he had experienced a lot of that type of thing, both as a boy and now as a chicken. Kevin also told the man that he himself had sometimes acted in ways like the man described, that he had been unkind to some friends at school, and his parents. Kevin felt a little sad. The man smiled and said that he too had done things like that. "It's part of being who we are Kevin", the man said. "There is nothing that we can break that we can't fix", the man smiling said. "It's all right if we can learn from it. We just need to constantly keep alert to negativity creeping in to our lives" the man said.

Kevin realised that life is a constant learning activity. "Can you teach me things that your people taught you?" asked Kevin to the man. "Of course I can" the man smilingly said. "I'm on my way back to my family, I can teach you along the way" the man said. The man told Kevin that he had met his wife many years ago and they had 3 wonderful children together, but life being life his wife had sadly passed away. "We are on a journey Kevin, our paths cross and intertwine, say hello and goodbye. Our memories will last forever, and we will meet again" the man said. The man had been spending some time alone with nature, but now he decided it was time to go back to his people.  Kevin was very excited to travel with the man and to learn about how to find out about navigation using the stars, to learn about nature, animals, and life.

Kevin travelled along the road with the man, learning as much as he could. He visited the camp where the mans family and friends were and had a great time. Kevin thanked the man for his friendship, hospitality, and love before bidding farewell and continuing on his journey.