Here they came again! Each time when we
stood near the window looking outside, the male one would try to come near us,
normally followed closely by the the two females. it was quite entertaining to
look at them, and the way they responded as if they were trying to communicate
with us. And our natural respond to them was just to shout, in whatever ways.
Each when we make whatever noise, the male one would definitely gobbled, quite
loud, and as frequent as we made noise at him.
They were actually three turkeys, a male
and two females, at my parents’ home. They were so intimately closed that I
called them “A Male With wives”.
Then came the Chinese New Year. When our
daughter was with us, she too felt very delighted and amused to look at them.
So each time when she approached them, she tried to wish them in
her own way: WA! SAY!
The male turkey would then responded by
grunting, making a gobble sound, spread and shook his feathers. Sometimes it
would walked in a circle while the ‘wives’ would look on feeling
frightened.
At times, I saw him spend most of his
time strutting his stuff, and gobbles often to a slight noise. These gestures
made everyone in the household attracted to him and trying to respond to him by
following my daughter’s way; shouted at him: WA! SAY! Loud and clear.
When our son and his wife were back,
they too joined in the fun. But our daughter-in-law, a Thai citizen, knew
only little Mandarin. Each time when she saw us gathered near the turkeys,
shouted: WA! SAY! Then laughed, she too would followed.
Quite a number of times, I saw the two
of them calling WA!SAY! WA!SAY! as if talking to it. Same with
other members of the big family who came back for the Lunar Year Feast.
After that, everyone went back
separately leaving my two parents looking after the turkeys as well as other
poultries in the home town.
Then came Christmas! My son and daughter
were abroad.
Back home here, my wife bought an frozen
turkey and prepared a roast turkey party for parishioners friends.
When the roasted turkey was taken out of
the oven, it looked delicious. We wanted to share the festival joy with my son
and daughter-in-law, and so we took photo of it and sent to them.
The prompt reply was not ‘Merry X’mas’
but: “Oh, Mama, why you all slaughtered WA!SAY! “
OMG! Then only we knew she thought
that WA!SAY! was the name we gave to the turkey. And she thought
that we had slaughtered it for Christmas!
