Once upon a time on Pops Diddlyops farm there lived a chicken, Mrs. Hen, a rooster, Mr. Cock, and a worm called Oscar. Oscar liked to squiggle around in the soft loamy soil outside the chicken pen. One day, Oscar poked his head out of the soil to see what he could see above ground. He found an exciting new world to explore, and explore it he did.
Mrs. Hen and Mr. Cock walked around the chicken pen and cackled away like married couples do as they enjoyed each others company. They spoke about their six children: Molly, Polly, Wally, Holly, Lolli, and Dolly.
Oscar overheard Mr. Cock tell Mrs. Hen that he was worried about Wally. Wally was their only son and Mr. Cock worried that without any other little boys to play with, Wally would be lonely.
“Oh Mr. Cock! You have a very small mind. Wally can play games with his sisters and have just as much fun as if he played with a brother. Besides, we haven’t been able to have any more children since Pops Diddlyops takes all our eggs to make eggies and toast for his grandchildren.”
“I guess you’re right Mrs. Hen. You usually are, but I wish we could have just one more son.” Poor Mr. Cock had such a sad look on his face. Oscar felt sorry for him.
Oscar got an idea, as much as a worm can have an idea. Worms can, you know. They have ideas all the time. Most people think worms live in the dark but they have very, very deep thoughts.
Oscar knew Mrs. Hen made an egg every day. Pops Diddlyops came out around 10 o’clock to snatch up the egg. He took it back to the house and put it into the frig to save for eggies and toast when his grandchildren visited. Oscar decided to sneak one egg and hide it in a safe warm place so that it could hatch into a brother for Wally. He knew that Pops Diddlyops sat by the window doodling on his iPAD until 10 o’clock. This would give him enough time to get the job done since Mrs. Hen usually laid her egg around nine.
Oscar usually lived underground where it was safe and warm and where he could always find lots of good food. But, sometimes he squiggled up out of the dark into the light and looked around. He was always amazed by what he saw. One day he watched a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. This gave him an idea. If he could turn into a butterfly like his friend the caterpillar, he could fly into the chicken coop and hide the egg where it could stay until it hatched.
The next day he watched a caterpillar very carefully as it hatched out of its cocoon into a butterfly. Oscar had hatched out of a cocoon once. That’s how all earthworms are born. Grown up worms lay eggs in cocoons, and the eggs hatch into baby worms. All he had to do was to find a cocoon that would turn him into a butterfly. It had never been done before, but he knew he could do it.
Oscar was a very smart earthworm. When he went to school, like all earthworms do, he studied the caterpillar language. Earthworms live underground and eat humus, a funny word for dead leaves. Caterpillars live above ground and eat leaves and flowers.
Oscar spent as much time as he could safely spend above ground without getting squashed or eaten. One day, when a butterfly emerged from its cocoon, Oscar spoke to it in his best caterpillar language.
“Excuse me, could I have that old cocoon of yours,” Oscar said.
“Who said that?” the butterfly asked.
“Look down,” said Oscar, “it’s me, Oscar the worm.”
“Oh, I didn’t know worms could talk,” the butterfly said as it flexed its wings. “Why do you want it?”
“I want to turn into a butterfly,” said Oscar.
The butterfly laughed so hard it fell off the tree limb. Luckily it was able to fly, so it didn’t get hurt.
“That’s impossible,” the butterfly said. “A worm cannot turn into a butterfly.”
“Oh, but it can!” said a small voice from behind the tree.
“What? Who said that?” said the butterfly.
A fairy jumped out from behind the tree. “It’s me,” said the fairy. “I can sprinkle some fairy dust on the cocoon and it will work one more time.”
“Fine,” said the butterfly. “Work that out with Oscar. It’s time for me to fly away.”
The butterfly flexed its wings and off it went.
“Can you really help me?” Oscar asked.
“Of course,” said the fairy, “but you must do me a favor first.”
Oscar was a bit nervous. He knew there could be both good and bad fairies. He had to be careful, but he had to do whatever he could to give Wally a brother.
“Pray tell, what do you want me to do? I’m just a wee little worm,” Oscar said.
The fairy laughed in a way that made Oscar nervous.
“Oh, you are much more than that,” said the fairy. “You are strong and very smart and I know what you want to do. I will help you if you just do one thing for me. That bed of marigolds Pops Diddlyops planted smells terrible. I cannot do my work anywhere near it. You must chew off the roots so the plants die. If you do this for me, I will sprinkle my magic dust on the cocoon so that you can have your wish.”
Oscar knew Pops Diddlyops planted the marigolds to feed to the chickens so they would have have bright yellow eyes and skin. He knew it would be wrong to destroy the flowers, but he just had to find a brother for Wally.
“Okay,” said Oscar. “I’ll do it.”
Oscar destroyed the marigold roots. Then he met with the fairy who did as promised.
“There is one thing,” said the fairy. “My spell only lasts for a day, so you must get your job done quickly. After one day you will return to your worm body.”
Oscar understood. As soon as he turned into a butterfly, he flew into Pops Diddlyops chicken coop and took the egg laid by Mrs. Hen. He flew it to a safe warm place under a pile of straw. Then he flew back outside the pen, turned back into a worm, and waited.
After a few days, the egg hatched into a little boy chicken. Mr. Cock and Mrs. Hen were surprised.
“I guess that egg we lost rolled off into that pile of warm hay,” said Mrs. Hen.
“Yes,” said Mr. Cock with a big smile. “We have a brother for Wally at last!”
They called their new son Jolly because they felt jolly to have a new little brother for Wally.
Everyone lived happily ever after and Pops Diddlyops grandchildren didn’t even miss that one little egg in their eggies and toast. Pops Diddlyops never did find out what happened to his marigold patch. He decided that he could do without the marigolds.
“They were too much work anyway,” he told Grandma Diddlyops.
The eyes and skin of the chickens wasn’t as yellow as it might have been, but no one seemed to care.
No one knew that Oscar saw to it that the egg hatched, or that he was the one who destroyed the marigold plants. He felt very important and smart until one day when strange things began to happen. Grandma Diddlyops noticed one morning that her hair was all tangled. Try as she might, she couldn’t get it back in order again. Pops Diddlyops noticed that the doors to the house would open and close for no good reason. Some household items went missing.
No one could figure it out, and no one ever has.
NOTE: All images in this post were made by CHAT GPT-4o