Angel Wings

"Ms. Ignacio! Spit that out." The geometry teacher,  Ms. Gabriel, barked at Angela who hastily wiped grease on her dark blue pleated skirt. Giggling, the girl swallowed her mouthful of chicken flesh. She stuffed chicken bones into her pocket and wiped her mouth with the back of her left hand.

"Sorry po, ma'm." She said, meekly.

From the raised platform in front of the class, Ms. Gabriel gave her a hard look, thin lips pressed together. She turned around with an audible crak, old wood under her fat two-inch heels. Angela had half a bag of chicken wings for recess that morning. The other half, minus one, had been tucked away underneath her seat. Two hours before lunch, she felt an angry hunger burn through her stomach.

Most of her classmates were listening to Ms. Gabriel's lecture when she slipped a hand between her thighs for another chicken wing. If she stood up, everyone would see the stain later, but the coil of tissue paper in her bag would help. Bowing low, over her armchair, she tore off a chunk of meat and slipped it into her mouth.

Studying the bones, Angela decided they were an agreeable alternative to eagle, duck, and turkey. At least wild chickens flew, she knew as much. Besides, there were no eagles to eat, turkeys do not fly, and duck meat wasn't as readily available. Her mother said the wings might be great, gray things to blow dust in her silly classmates' eyes.

"Pabayaan mo sila, ija." Her mother crooned. "Pabayaan mo sila!" 

Even now, one of her classmates stared as Angela gorged and stuck out her tongue, daring her to raise a hand. Pabayaan sabi!


"Angela! What are you doing?" Ms. Gabriel marched up the aisle towards her, still bent double in her chair. An angry spasm made Angela clench her teeth.

"Anong nangyayari sa'yo?" Ms. Gabriel demanded.


When Angela didn't reply, the teacher bent down, the stiff skirt rolling up to reveal pasty white thighs reminiscent of lumpy bread dough. "Angela?" She sounded a little worried. The girl looked at her, twisting her neck forward, eyes strangely beady. Angela gaped at her geometry professor, her breath foul.

When the girl gave a fierce shriek answered by the neighboring cocks, Ms. Gabriel shipped her home.  Feathers replaced skin and Angela's mother stopped calling the school demanding an explanation. When Angela's head shrank and her neck grew longer and thicker than ever, Ms. Gabriel gave them a small red box for the small red hen.