CEO and Jessica Lightfoot-Toye

Now you must know of the subterfuge that the young man Aniello created in order to disguise his desire to copulate with his chicken. This bird looked after Aniello whilst he was a beggar, right into its dotage, laying him an egg everyday for him to consume (or at least that he consumed). Aniello loved this bird and hence in this loving respect repressed his desire. Upon its death he retrieved a
marvellous red stone from within its skull, which could grant all wishes.
His first wish of course was to resurrect the cathectic object. Upon reanimation, the fowl could speak and in doing so it offered good advice to Aniello about how he might enjoy life. Presumably
because the chicken never suggested it, Aniello did not wish for his true desire and hence applied a glamour of handsomeness to himself, magicked up a castle and married a spoiled princess. Two wizards who wanted the stone, then tricked it out of his spouse and undid all that Aniello had done —though the chicken remained alive but no longer capable of speech. Eventually Aniello regained the stone, turned the wizards to donkeys, rebuilt his castle but no longer wanted the spoiled
princess. He then re-considered his repressed issue and in an ingenious, yet obvious, solution, he wished that the hen could be a beautiful maiden that he could marry, which he did.
It will be clear from this that Aniello succeeded in largely fulfilling (not resolving) his Oedipus complex (insofar as such a thing is real). The egg laying chicken, (his symbolic mother), became desirable to him and yet was prohibited. This was so partially owing to his loving respect for it and partially through its lack of speech —these two points are of course related. The wizards are his father that sought the stone for themselves and hence to deprive him of the chicken. They of course
failed and Aniello (as mentioned) transformed the chicken into the maiden. Of course, after all this Aniello had to marry the chicken/maiden/mother. For he still felt the same love for her as when she was a chicken and hence did not simply want to fuck her. But what then
for Aniello? He had a marvellous red stone to grant them all things and a chicken/maiden/mother for a wife. When he fucks her, she makes a bit of a strange noise and admittedly she has strange line in conversation (making dinner guests awkward) but apart from that all is good.

For three years Aniello and Rachel, whom he’d at last given a human name, cohabited in relative peace. Thanks to Aniello’s (or rather, Rachel’s) magic red stone, the couple never wanted for anything as everything they desired appearedbefore them as soon as Aniello rubbed the precious jewel. It wasn’t long before verdant green gardens, vibrant courtyards and high walls flanked the borders of their grand estate and their palace continued to grow in size as Aniello continued to wish for excess wealth and luxury. But while he was now the richest, handsomest and most revered m.an in all of the kingdom, he could not shake a sense of unease which grew within him.

Aniello continued to obtain carnal satisfaction twice daily (thrice if you count the additional weekly session on a Tuesday evening). One day after completing this particular ritual for the second time, Aniello, while sweeping up the ever-growing pile of feathers expelled from their pillows during love-making, began to contemplate matters. He looked toward his bride and began to observe her in an altogether different manner. His gaze was first cast over her tawny plumage and he considered how it occasionally sprouted the odd feather which she plucked serendipitously when she thought he wasn’t looking. It was then he began noticing other remnants of her former self. Her nose which he once considered noble took on a more beak-like quality, her round chest puffed forward like an avian breast and her long fingers (of which there were only three on each hand) reminded him of the elongated toes which once extended from each foot. But what unsettled Aniello most about his gradual realisations was that his bride’s daily offerings of eggs had failed to cease after her dramatic physical transformation. While he had not seen his bride produce these eggs which she assured him were still her own, Aniello decided that he’d rather not give this conundrum too much thought.

As he sat one morning in their magnificent dining room, laden with an exotic array of fruits, confectionery and sweet meats, he cracked his daily egg on the edge of the oak table when he heard an unexpected sound. Lifting the egg to eye-level, he noticed a refraction of blue light gleaming from within the thin, membranous layer. Cautiously, Aniello began peeling it in precise segments when all of a sudden, a shrill, watery voice cried out from behind the ghostly veil.