WA! SAY! The Proud Turkey.

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!