Jennifer’s Bio:

Jennifer Flueckiger is American by birth, Scottish by marriage and currently lives in Paris. She explores travel, cultural exchanges, sport and everyday life in her writing. Jennifer has been published in the anthology Vignettes & Postcards; the Scottish Review; UK literary magazine, Mslexia; and on her blog, the accidental parisienne.

In addition to her creative pursuits, Jennifer has helped numerous non-profit organizations and academics tell their stories to governments, specific audiences and the public through a range of publications, events and submissions. She has received praise for her efforts from politicians, academics and organizations.

Jennifer is currently working on McSoccer for Girls, a memoir about her experience coaching girl’s soccer in Scotland. She also posts interesting stuff she finds about girl’s soccer around the world on her blog McSoccer for Girls and on the website, Youth Football Scotland.

For more information about Jennifer, see http://jenniferflueckiger.com/.

Lil’ Izzy

By Jennifer Flueckiger

 

I suppose we knew it was fixin’ to be a different type of pregnancy right from the get-go. We never knew of any men folk goin’ round with Julia. She couldn’t remember none neither. But sure ‘nough, ‘bout 6 months ago Julia’s belly began to swell, an’ last week out popped Izzy.

Julia was, on balance, relieved. Izzy’s size, for one, meant she didn’t have to endure the screamin’ birth she’d seen Mama and her sisters go through. She’d heard tell that a woman’s parts down there were messed up real good after birth, but this lil’ one just slipped on out.

“It was easier than pullin’ a pig through mud,” she said. And that’s no lie.

Also, Julia was relieved that Izzy was goin’ to be a right lot easier to do the motherin’ for than normal babies. No cryin’, no diapers, no feedin’. Just daily bowls full of mealworms and a little bit of water.

Truth told, we sure were worried ‘bout lil’ Izzy the night after her birth. She just lay there, not movin’ at all. But then on Tuesday night she found her way to the spot where Papa’s readin’ light warmed up the arm of his big ol’ chair. With all that warmth, she perked right up. Since then Papa’s been sittin’ on one of the chairs pulled in from the kitchen when we listen to the radio at night. Mama says it’s the first time in 20 years Papa’s not been in his chair. What a sight!

Izzy fit into the family straight away. As she came out nearly whole, we could see no reason for her not to start helpin’ out round the farm. Just this and that you understand, after all, she’s just a youngin’. We found out right quick she’s good at gettin’ bugs. That tongue of hers—whap—just like those horse whips I saw them cowboys work at the last county fair. She gets those little bugs stunned, not knowin’ what hit ‘em, and then they’re down the hatch faster than greased lightin’. We put her to work up one of the furrows in the back field and it was bug free in a matter of hours. Papa’s mighty impressed and right proud.

I’d be lyin’ if I said that there hadn’t been some talk ‘bout Izzy’s make-up, so to speak. Lil’ Trudy overheard one of the neighbors speculatin’ ‘bout who Izzy’s daddy might be. They were sayin’ it could have been any one of them slimy reptiles that hang round the bar in town. I told Trudy not to mention a word of what she heard to Mama.

Doc Mackenzie put Lacertilia Squamata Reptilia as the daddy’s name on the birth certificate. Julia said she don’t know no one called that and we sure never heard such a fancy name round these parts. We asked the Doc ‘bout this but he said he was sure. We don’t care anyway, we love our lil’ Izzy.

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