大象传媒

My Dad was in the Royal Artillery in North Africa 1941 - 1942. One day his company made camp for the night beside a farm on the edge of the desert. The farm was a humble building with a tree beside it. As usual, they were required to dig slit trenches beside their position before settling down for the night. During the night they came under shellfire. Of course, pandemonium broke out, and my Dad, together with the rest, scrambled to get into one of the slit trenches. My Dad made it, into a trench beneath the tree, but shortly thereafter he felt an impact in his back. "God, I'm hit!" he thought. Immediately afterwards he heard someone screaming. In the melee, my Dad thought that HE was screaming, due to being hit. He looked up, and saw, perched in the branches of the tree, a peacock. The peacock was used by the farmer as a watchdog, and it was IT that was doing the screaming, terrified by the barrage. But, also, my Dad hadn't been hit by shrapnel... the terrified peacock had crapped right on top of him!

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