Francine lived in a densely populated area and many others lived in close vicinity to her. Those closest were her sisters but there were many others from the community that lived almost as close to her as her sisters did. There were only women living in the block with Francine, in fact as far as she knew, there was such a thing as a male.

Francine was happy. Although she lived in close confines, she was always with her sisters who she loved and got on with. They would spend their days chatting away to each other. Everything Francine needed was there on tap. A constant supply of food was provided to her, there was always enough water, her house was always the right temperature, and she was in the company of people she cared for.

Her house was part of a block of houses, an apartment you could say. There were many rows of apartments on the block, each with houses just as full of friends, family, acquaintances and strangers as her own. It was a kind of city you could say.

Francine did not know about the sun, for she had never seen it. She spent her entire lifetime inside, not that she knew it. Lights came from above when it was time to be awake and dimmed at bedtime.

Creating was what Francine did. Everyone in the city filled their days with creating. All Francine had to do was create one thing every day which she traded for her lodgings and food.

This was Francine’s life. She quite liked her life. She didn’t have anything else to compare it to; she was content.

Everyone in her city lived the same length of time. Her whole city was the same age. Everyone grew up together and got old together.

Francine’s lived her full life expectancy. She was 18 months old when she was starting to feel her body failing under the pressures of old age. She was not so reliable at creating anymore, only managing one piece of work every two days. This was true of all of her sisters too. Everyone was feeling the pressure of age.

As was the custom in her culture, everyone was given a life expectancy when they were born, and they lived up to this age and only this age before taking their place in the circle of life.

Francine was no ordinary person however for Francine was a Factory Chicken.