Tao by John Newman Read Free Book Online Page B

brother, Tao,” she added, introducing me.
    “Peace, man,” said George and made peace signs to me with both hands. “I dig your timing, man. Just as the first egg is about to blow. Cool.”
    He was right. One of the eggs, which looked like just an ordinary brown hen’s egg and had been rocking gently back and forth, cracked down the middle and a tiny chick all covered in sticky spittle tumbled out.
    “Aw!” said Mimi.
    “Yes!” shouted Sally.
    “Man!” said George.
    Conor and I just stared at the little chick stumbling about in its glass box.
    “You know what this means?” said Sally. “Organic eggs!”
    “Sounds good to me, young lady,” said my dad, who had just come into the shed behind Paul. “You must be Sally?” he added, holding out his hand to her.
    Then he shook Conor’s hand and then George’s.
    “So where’s the mother hen then?” he asked Sally, which was a good question.
    “In Scotland,” blurted out Mimi.
    Sally gave her a look.
    “I bought the eggs on the Internet,” Sally explained. “I bought six, but they probably won’t all hatch. The average is about three.”
    “But they did come from Scotland,” insisted Mimi.
    “Och, aye,” said Conor. “It’s a wee chick from Glasgow.”
    Everyone laughed at that and Sally picked up the tiny chick in her hands. It was very cute.
    “What are you going to call it, hon?” Paul asked her, petting it with his finger.
    “Cluck?” suggested George.
    “I’m not calling it Cluck!” said Sally.
    “Nessie? After the monster,” said Conor. “Seeing as it’s from Scotland… Or Braveheart.”
    “Don’t be so stupid, Conor,” snapped Sally. “It’s much too small to be called after some makey-up monster.”
    “The Loch Ness monster is not makey-up!” Mimi interrupted crossly. “I saw a photo of it in a book. It’s a real monster … ask anyone!”
    “Don’t be so stupid, Mimi,” said Sally sharply, and Mimi went red and stuck out her tongue when Sally wasn’t looking.
    “Scottie?” I said quietly. It just popped out. Sally looked at me … she was a very scary person.
    “That’s good,” she said. “Scottie,” she repeated, talking to the chick in her hand. “Little Scottie it is then. Thanks, Tao.”
    “Cool,” said George.
    I know that it’s a bit silly, but I felt quite proud of myself.
    Dad winked at me. Then Paul told Sally to put Scottie back into the incubator thing, because it was time to go and eat and the visitors must be starving.
    Dinner was in the dining room and not in the kitchen, “Which it usually is,” explained Mimi, “except when we have important visitors like you and your dad.”
    Paul barbecued steaks outside the back door, which tasted great, but Sally wouldn’t touch hers because cows were destroying the planet.
    “Give it a rest, Sally,” moaned Conor. “Don’t mind her, Tao. She’s mad in the head!”
    Mimi nodded at me across the table as if to say “yes, she is”. If Sally wasn’t so fierce, I would have laughed.
    “No, she’s right, man,” said George, his mouth full of meat. “Cows fart all day, man. It’s bad news. All that gas heating up the planet.”
    Mimi spluttered when he said that and the water she was drinking squirted out of her nose and mouth. Conor put his hand under his arm and made a rude noise.
    “Enough, George! Conor, behave yourself!” said Paul crossly. “We’ve got guests!”
    “Sorry, man,” mumbled George. “But straight up, man, nobody should be eating beef.”
    “You’re eating beef, George,” I said quietly. I was beginning to feel a bit braver.
    George was silent then. Steadily chewing with his mouth open. Everybody was looking at him, but that didn’t seem to worry him. He just nodded and said, “Fair point, man. Fair point.”
    Then he put another forkful of meat into his mouth. Mimi raised her eyes to heaven and I couldn’t keep the laugh that was inside me inside me any longer. It just burst out and everybody laughed, even