That day my husband went for his hair cut in his usual barber shop, the one he liked since we first moved up to Silver City. He was reading his comics and mumbled, "Chickens!" I landed abruptly from my daydream and inclined my ears, but he said nothing more!
Before I could shoot off into my pleasant imaginary lands, I heard the flapping of wings. I looked out the glass frontage and saw some pigeons flying from the roof of shops opposite. That was too far off for my bionic ears to catch, so it cannot be pigeons. I glanced around and saw a black thin chicken flying up to a coffee table to roost. There was already a bigger chicken of the same color sitting there with her eyes closed. Both chickens were within four feet of me. And to think that I was oblivious of their presence for a good five minutes!
Later I learned that the boss kept them as pets. They were free to leave as the glass door stayed open throughout business hours. They might walk out but after a short time they always returned. Amazingly they are house trained, I did not see any chicken droppings. They were fed corn shavings outside the shop. According to a worker, they were well aware that the boss man loves them. As soon as the boss sits down, they would fly up to his lap or his shoulder. The bigger one is female and the smaller one is male. They are rather quiet and present no trouble to the customers. They so strut and walked confidently around as if they own the shop.
These industrious Indian barbers actually come from India. They work here by permits, after a year or two, they go home to their families. Since many of them work in cycles and have some kind of co-operative arrangements, the shop continues to run. They charged eight dollars for an adult haircut, which is very economical. They are very frugal people. Their daily diet is usually whole meal rice and lentil. They cook their own meals and stay in a tiny backroom behind the barber saloon area. Even with the little they could earn by the sheer volume of customers, they could save up money to take back to their home country. It is a lonely life. I can imagine that chickens could be good company and objects of love which does not consume too much money to keep.
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