Story #12

Colleen Mundy
Story #12 (against prompt)

Eggs
It was her very first egg and Kathy could hardly sit still while her mother carefully pulled it from the basket which cradled it. It was Kathy’s 11th birthday and the only thing she wanted was a pet. She sat in the middle of her backyard in the soft, full grass while her father sat at the patio table drinking a glass of scotch. He ran a nervous hand through his hair, hoping the egg would produce a nice hamster, a cat even, rather than a pig or God forbid an ostrich or something.
God love science, he thought as he watched his wife place the egg on the grass in front of their daughter. It was about the size of a soccer ball, but any size animal could be curled up inside waiting to be released. That was the new thing in 2036: all animals came from eggs, scientifically produced and manufactured; not enough animals remained from the extinction for natural reproduction. The eggs were sold with an added bonus of surprise, also. No one ever knew what animal would come from an egg until it was cracked, and an egg could sit without being cracked for years and still be good. Kathy’s father put down his empty glass and lit a cigarette as his wife handed Kathy a small hammer.
Kathy clutched at the hammer and starred at the egg with expectant eyes. Her mother backed away from her daughter, excited to see her first egg cracking. She folded her hands behind her back, threw a glance over her shoulder at her husband who took a long drag on his cigarette, and crossed her fingers that it would be a normal, domesticated animal. Kathy placed the head of the hammer on the very tip of the egg, pulled it back and let it drop ever so lightly on the egg; one little tap is all it took.
The egg split down from tip to bottom in four equal pieces and the shell opened like a rose. Kathy’s face dropped as she peered inside, down to the very bottom of the egg. Her mother inched forward and gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. Kathy’s father jumped up out of his chair on the patio, flinging his cigarette to the concrete and stepping on it on his way to his wife’s side. Kathy titled her head on angle and raised an eyebrow as she traced her finger along the shell of the first empty animal egg in history. Her father reached into his shirt pocket for another cigarette.