E. C. Unger

Eric's Adventure Goes Bad E. C. Unger

After graduating from university, Eric thinks that it's time to get away from formal education. He heads off to France on his own chosen adventure. Eric is a happy-go-lucky guy at heart, and quite content to find work on a French chicken farm belonging to a farmer named Willy. From the very first day, however, things go wrong. Eric makes one mistake after another, and knows that this is costing Willy money. Being a perfectionist, he is harder on himself for messing up than his stern boss. He begins to feel that he can do nothing right and broods all day long over his errors. He begins to wonder if he should just pack up and go home, but being a quitter doesn't sit right with him. At the end of each day, he sits quietly on his bed in his little room under the stairs and asks God why he has to mess up every day. As time passes, Eric is reduced to a robot. He develops a new habit to occupy his mind: from the time he gets up in the morning, he calculates the number of minutes left before he'll be back in bed at night. Eric endures to the end and completes his time on the farm. Only as he waves goodbye and sees Willy gazing heavenward, does it dawn on him that this has also been an extremely difficult time for Willy.