Mr. McCarey and The Payhens
Gary rapped the studio door.
I was mid thought.
"Will I call it Ink and Imagination again......or go with Ink Trails, Forests and Fields?" to myself.
He came in.
I turned around.
"Is Mary about. She might be able to help this man. He's lookin' a note on the Tidy Towns page."
I went out.
"Can you put a message on the Northern Sound?" he asks.
"My wife can."
Explanations and confusion.
Briefly.
"Oh, aye!" he finishes.
I went in to get Mary.
She was fixing her boot on over the broken toe.
Only retired two days and this happens.
"Do I hear voices?"
"Norah's outside and there's a man who has lost two peacocks."
"What!"
He's a nice man, typical of north Monaghan.
"They were last seen in Tirnaneill," he offered.
"They're payhens, not paycocks. I paid €150 each for them aye."
"What will they eat now?" asked Norah. Concerned.
"Anything they can git hold of," he chuckles.
Mary is jotting down.
"If someone sees them what should they do?" I ask.
"Mebbe they could lay a wee trail of meal into a shed and ta coax them intit that way. But close the door after them. Cause they can fly out over a half door!"
"How far can they fly?" I ask.
"Ach, they could fly up onto that roof of that house!"
He nods across to Murrays.
"They could fly up onta a hay shed and sit there for hours."
"How long are they missing now?" asks Norah. Concerned still.
"Two weeks! They've been seen all over the places."
"Some one is bound to see them around," we all join.
"Aye, surely," he nods.
"Will you put that in the Northern Sound Missus?"
"I'll put it in the Donagh Notes, and the Tidy Towns page on Face Book."
"Facebook, aye, right."
"And we'll all share it," says Gary.
"Right, good enough," he says.
"Now how much have ya ta get Missus?"
"Oh, nothing. It's free. Have they any names ? Are they pets?"
"Ha! Divil a name them have," he chuckles.
"The paycocks at home on his own. He never left with them."
"You'd think he would be the first one to fly away!" someone added.
A dig at the men.
Gary googled a picture of peahens
"Aye that's them. They're a brownish colour. They're near ready to start laying ! Aye you'd get a hundred euro fer the small ones! An' I saw someone payin' £1, a €1 I mean for a feather of the male. Aye, ta put it in their hat!"
We'll all keep an eye out.
"Good enough."
The two men headed back towards the petrol pumps.
Mary and Norah headed to the kitchen for tea.
"I just had tea. Don't go putting on no kettle for me," says Norah.
But she did have hot water.
I headed back to the studio. I took a cursory, inquiring look down the garden.
Why not !
No peahens!!
We once had a swan landed there......& couldn't take off again.
But that's a story for another day.
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