Last chicken

Picture this: our hero, a meat counter clerk named, let’s say, Barnaby, had a day so good, his head was practically doing a little jig. Now, Barnaby, bless his heart, might have celebrated a tad too enthusiastically with a celebratory…uh… “grape juice tasting.” So, when he proudly presented his final chicken of the day, he was feeling quite the entertainer.

He plopped the chicken onto the scale with a flourish, like a magician revealing his grand finale. “Behold!” he declared, though perhaps a little too loudly, “A magnificent fowl! A mere $6.35!”

The customer, a lady with a keen eye and a sensible purse, glanced at the chicken. “Hmm,” she mused, “That’s a wee bit on the petite side. Do you happen to have anything…more substantial?”

Barnaby, momentarily thrown off his rhythm, paused. His brain, usually a whizzing machine of meat-related knowledge, was currently running on a slightly delayed loop. But, thinking on his feet (or rather, wobbling on them), he had a brilliant idea. “Fear not, madam!” he announced, snatching the chicken back and disappearing behind the gleaming chrome doors of the refrigerator.

He waited a few seconds, just long enough to give it a dramatic pause, then triumphantly pulled out…the exact same chicken. “Ah, but this one!” he declared, his voice a little strained, “This one is…a special edition. It’s…grown a bit. Yes, a growth spurt. It’s now $6.65.”

The lady, who was clearly no chicken-counting novice, raised an eyebrow. “A growth spurt in a matter of seconds?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye. “Intriguing.”

Then, a mischievous grin spread across her face. “You know what?” she said, “I’ll take both of them!”

Barnaby blinked, his mind struggling to process the logic. “Both?” he echoed, his voice a little higher than usual.

“Yes, both!” she confirmed, “After all, ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’, and in this case, a slightly larger bird is worth two of the same bird!”

So, Barnaby, slightly bewildered but still beaming, wrapped up the two identical chickens, proving that sometimes, a little bit of silliness can lead to double the sales. And, as they say, “laughter is the best medicine”, even if it comes with a side of slightly tipsy butcher jokes.