Member-only story
Ducks!
What happiness!
A couple of summers ago, when the seasonal pond I can see from my front door was as unseasonable as it gets, my partner got out on his tractor and spent a couple of days dredging weeds and dust out of its shallow depression. Then, when the winter rains came, voila! we had a pond.
In spring, we had a family of wild ducks. Mama and Papa Duck and five fluffy babies perched every morning on an old surfboard we anchored in the middle of the pond to keep the babies safe from our cat. A heron occasionally also ensconced him(her?)self on the board and stared fixedly at frogs and salamanders doing breast strokes eight or ten inches under the surface.
What happiness!
Now, in August, even though we’re keeping the pond filled with water with a pump from a nearby year-round stream, the ducks have grown up and the family is gone.
We hope at least Mama and Papa will come back home again next spring. This will prove Thomas Wolfe wrong: Ducks, at least, can go home again.
Ⓒ Katharine Valentino 2024
✉ Get email when I publish
