Hollywood Good

----

The plucky black hen who lived her life clucking and scratching on the corner of one of Joburg's busiest streets had bemused motorists for months.

They watched her duck past cars driving along Beyers Naude; and Judith roads near Melville Koppies .

They watched her speed away from passers-by. They laughed and commented on the antics of the bird, known as the streetwise chicken.

It was rumoured that the wily bird even escaped a sangoma's "witch doctors" sacrifice at the top of the koppies or hill during a religious ceremony.

But it was only a matter of time before the hen, even if she was the most streetwise of all, would meet her Maker.
-

A newspaper seller kept the chicken company every day. While he paraded the latest headlines before motorists, the chicken sat on the pavement eating the breadcrumbs he fed her.

He was the only human the bird would allow near her.

While the chicken and the seller played out their everyday tasks, a pair of tsotsis "thugs" watched them.

They had tried to catch the streetwise chicken, but she was far too fast. So they came up with a devilish plan.

They held up the street seller - with a knife to the throat.

They forced him to call his plucky little friend.

The seller laid down his breadcrumbs, and out she came.

This time the hen wasn't fast enough - the streetwise chicken met her match. She died a Jozi death. The old chicken has become a meal and a legend a fitting end to the old girl.

The newspaper seller hasn't returned to the corner since.