“Cluck-cluck,” replied Freddy, staring at his sister and tapping his beak with his left wing. “Cluck-cluck, here I am, O Nanny Boo-Boo. Herefore art I am.”

Freddy and his Dad sometimes called her “Nanny Boo-Boo” because when he was very little, Freddy would run to his big sister when he got hurt and say, “Nanny, Boo-Boo.” Even though he was nine years old now, Freddy still called her that when he wanted to make her mad. He considered making his sister miserable one of the most important jobs he had, because she certainly tried to make his life miserable every chance she got.

“Hmmpph,” she snorted. “You’ve ruined my concentration. I can’t possibly work under these conditions,” she complained.

“You’re not working right now,” pointed out Freddy.

“Duh. We don’t have any customers. They’re all over there cramming dead cows into their mouths.”

Nancy pointed her bottle top across the street to the enormous and fancy burger restaurant owned by the Spanker family. Patty Cakes, which served everything from burgers to cakes, was far more than a restaurant. The place had its own Ferris wheel, roller coaster, splash rides, movie theater, video arcade, and lots more. Their competitor’s sign had a large plastic charcoal hamburger patty sitting on top of a pink cake. The patty and cake logo was on everything, from the staff uniforms to advertisements in the paper to the Patty Cakes blimp that glided all over town. The Spankers drove a big pink Cadillac that played the ditty: “Patty-cake, patty-cake, Spanker man, follow us, follow us to Spanker Land.”

It made Freddy want to puke every time he heard it.

“Beef – it’s what’s for dinner,” said Nancy dramatically, and then fell to the floor in a moving death scene before standing and taking a bow. “Thank you, thank you,” she murmured. “No, no encore, really, not another encore, my adoring fans. Fifteen is enough. Well, perhaps just one more.”