[Critique Group 1] CLEORA's submission for 3/28/18

[sitting.duck at springmail.com]

1187 words
City Ducks

by: Sly Duck

Julie held her sighted guide Sharon's arm as they walked along the trail behind her house. It was a fine day for a walk. The birds merrily cheered the warm spring day; the gentle fragrance of blossoms floated on the warm breeze; and Julie could hear the rustle of the new leaves on the trees. 

Sharon raised her hand and pointed at something ahead of them. "There's a turtle doing something beside the walk up there," she said. "I can't tell, but I think its laying eggs."

They stopped across from the turtle and watched while she worked. 

"I suppose we should move on and leave her alone," said Julie.

"Yes, you're right," she said. They walked on for another three minutes and then turned around. The turtle was gone when they came back.

One mid-summer day they were walking along the path again. "Oh, look," said Sharon. She had stopped and turned slightly. She was pointing in the direction of the stream running along the bottom of the slope between the walk and the apartment complex on the other side.

"What?" said Julie. 

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Sharon. "I keep forgetting. It's a duck with one, two, three... six... no, I think it's seven. Yes, it is a mother duck with seven ducklings. They are so small. I could barely see their little heads bobbing above the blades of grass. Now they are all down by the shore and the mother is trying to get them to follow her into the water." Sharon chuckled. "One of them doesn't want to go in. It's running back up the bank." They stood there a little while longer while Sharon watched and described the scene to Julie.

They turned down the path and started walking again. Julie could hear that Sharon was grinning as she said, "She finally got them all in. Now they are coming out and going back up the bank." 

They walked another five minutes and turned around. “Are the ducks still here?” asked Julie as they neared the spot where they had been seen.

"No," she said, stopping and looking around. "I don't see them anymore."

A slight breeze helped, but the sun was hot and they were glad to get back inside where it was cool.

In the early fall, Julie was walking with Jack. 

"Do you have beavers back here?" he asked.

"Not that I know of," said Julie. "Why? Is there a dam across the stream?"

"No. Wait," said Jack, "it can't be a beaver. It doesn't have a wide flat tail."

"It's a nutria ," said a slim fast-walking stranger as he hurried by.

"It's eating the grass," said Jack.

"Eating the grass?" said Julie.

"Yes, it's just sort of lying on its tummy munching away."

"Hmm. Interesting," said Julie.

They walked on for the rest of the five minutes and then turned around. The nutria was still happily grazing when they came back.

"This winter has been warmer than any winter since I have lived here," said Julie. "It is almost the end of November and we still haven't had a freeze."

"I know what you mean.," said Sharon. "My brother mowed our lawn yesterday. We have never had to mow later than September before."

As they returned to the house, Sharon remarked that there was a large black bird with a red head, white bill, and yellow feet eating a dead squirrel on the street. She pulled out her smart phone and punched in the description. "It's a turkey buzzard," she said. "I thought so, but I wasn't sure. It is called a turkey buzzard because it has a featherless red head like a turkey."

It finally turned cold. They had had almost two weeks of temperatures between freezing and twenty degrees. The doorbell rang and Julie met Jack at the door. "You have some visitors," he said.

"Visitors?" asked Julie.

"Yes, there is a flock of ducks sitting on your driveway. They have deposited some gifts for you. I had an interesting journey getting to the door."

Julie chuckled understanding his meaning. When he left, he went out the garage door so he could put Julie's trash out for the city to pick up. The ducks were lined up along the opening. They didn't offer to come in, but they were not shy about pacing back and forth. Julie watched Jack leave and then put the door down and went back into the house. This was not the first time someone had mentioned ducks in her yard. In over two decades of living here, no wildlife from the park behind her house, other than an occasional turtle, had ever ventured into her front yard. A couple of weeks ago, one flock had been following a teenager who was eating a sandwich or something as he hurried along. Anytime something fell from what he was eating it was quickly snatched up by one of the parade members. It had been very cold the last two weeks. Maybe they are hungry, Julie thought. She picked up a package with 4 crackers left in it and went out the front door to see if the ducks were still there. It was bitter cold and she hadn't bothered to grab her coat before stepping out. She moved back into the entry way so the walls could shelter her from the wind. She rattled the package wondering if the ducks would hear and find her. She didn't have to wait long. Soon a gathering of about 9 ducks were standing in front of her. One duck was very large. It's head came about half way up her thigh. Three or four of the ducks were about two-thirds its size and there were five or six smaller ducks standing behind them. Julie wondered if these were the little ducklings they had seen that summer.

Julie broke the crackers in pieces and handed some to the larger ducks in front and tossed some over their heads to the smaller ones. They snatched up the pieces hungrily. She went back in and got a full package of crackers. Again, to her regret, she didn't grab a coat on her way back out. The ducks were waiting and gratefully accepted the additional offerings.

She would have loved to pet each one, but she knew they wouldn't go for that. 

The weather warmed up and the ducks disappeared from the front yards, then reappeared after another cold snap. Julie shared another package of crackers with them. They didn't seem as hungry this time. She wondered if anyone else had been feeding them. Curiously, one of the wagging tails was thinner and more narrow than the others. Could there be a little black dog in the flock? If so, the ducks didn't seem to mind.

With spring just around the corner, she and Jack went out to check for fire ant beds. They found some ducks sitting quietly under the hedge at the corner of the house.

"Okay, you little beggars," she told them. "Just no egg deposits and no eating the garden hose."