One day Little Duck was bored, and although Big Duck was not bored at all, Little Duck decided he needed to be educated in the art of flying. “Just stretch your left wing out like this,” he instructed Big Duck. Of course, Big Duck had neither left wing nor right wing, so he stretched his left arm out as far as he could.
“Very good,” said Little Duck. Then, “Stretch out your right wing!” he quacked like a drill sergeant, in a very bossy tone. And so Big Duck stretched his right arm out as far as he could.
“Now, spread out your wing tip feathers and flap both wings at the same time,” demanded Little Duck; but try as he might, Big Duck just couldn’t do it.
Upon further investigation, Little Duck decided that aside from a failure to coordinate wing movements, there was a further complication that foretold that for Big Duck, flying lessons would never come to fruition,
for it seemed that in addition to malformed wings, Big Duck also lacked the webbed feet necessary for landing and propelling himself through water as well as the tail to serve as a rudder.
“Very strange indeed!” shouted Little Duck from waaaaay down on the floor, where he had gone to investigate the matter. “In fact, in spite of your name and the color of your feet, you seem to resemble this palefoot human standing right over here to my right more than you do a duck.”
“But I love you anyway,” Little Duck quacked at Big Duck, as he winged up to his shoulder to give him a reassuring peck on the cheek.
And, never one to give up on chances for adventure, Little Duck put on his thinking cap and tried to think of something Big Duck might be better able to accomplish. It was important after his last big failure that he give him a simple task more suited to his talents than flying seemed to be.
“Eureka!” he thought, and hopped up to share his idea with Big Duck, who at first looked somewhat dubious.
But, in his usual inimitable fashion, Little Duck persevered. “As a team, we are unbeatable,” he insisted. “With my creativity and great mind and your mutated feathers capable of maneuvering a keyboard, we could write great literature!” And so, after a great deal of quacking and what passed for quacking on Big Duck’s part, the two settled into a collaboration.
“It was a dark and stormy night,” lisped Little Duck.
“That sounds a bit trite to me,” countered Big Duck.
“Once upon a time,” quacked the littler of the two.
“Been done already,” Big Duck fired back.
“Duck!!!!!” shouted little Duck as he saw a wasp zeroing in on Big Duck’s ear.
“That sounds a bit better,” enthused Big Duck, and typed the first word of their document, complete with five exclamation marks and an ending quotation mark.
Knowing there was very little time for action, Little Duck soared through the air to Big Duck’s shoulder just in time to snap up the angry wasp in his martyred and heroic beak.
“What comes next?” asked Big Duck, totally unaware that he’d just been saved from his biggest fear by Little Duck.”Did you notice that I remembered the closing parenthesis?” He asked, pointing proudly at their first completed sentence. “Do you have an idea for the second sentence?”
“There was a wasp about to sting you on the ear and I saved you by catching it in my beak!” shouted Little Duck.
“Now who in the world is ever going to believe that?” protested Big Duck, and threw up his hand in defeat.
And that is how Little Duck’s Big Adventure never came to be written and why Big Duck’s name has not gone down in the history of literature, or even at the very least, in the blogger’s hall of fame.
THE END
What to do with leftover Little Duck photos on the way between St. Paul and St. Louis with Big Duck doing all the driving. I hit the publish button just as we arrived at the motel! Now that is timing.
Crave more Little Duck adventures? https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/09/25/travels-with-ducks-the-continuing-saga-of-little-duck-episode-5/
I love you Big Duck and Little Duck series. 😀 😀
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I’m loving your Big Duck/Little Duck series! Would be fun to publish the series for kids to read!
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You are never in a million years going to be able to top this. My favorite expression is the dubious one. The little duck played his part well, but big duck was the communicator extroardinaire. What a dynamic team!
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LOL!
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this is amazing…..
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Flying is not all it’s quacked up to be, I suppose? Wasp a tail, it is? Will there webber be another? Cheers Jamie.
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Ha! Waiting to go through security and not mindful enough to think up an appropriate answering quip! You Quacked me up!!!
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Little Duck, I am so proud of you….Big Duck, cut little duck some slack…he saved you and probably got stung for his trouble!
Cute, Judy! My oldest granddaughter’s favorite stuffed toy was “Ducky,” slightly smaller with longer legs than your Little Duck…but brings back memories! Jo
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We are a bit worried about how fond we have both become of Little Duck.
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😉
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Big Duck was right: “Duck!!!” would make a good opening to a story. But it should be a bullet whizzing within a hair breadth of someone’s anatomy. Or maybe the blade of a samurai’s sword swishing through the air. Yes, one could go places with that. 🙂
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Or a fresh cherry pie discus-ing through the air!
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Or people on a boat moving quickly down the river toward a low bridge?
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Aha.. I have an illustration for that. Did you see my post about having to get down on the floor of the boat to avoid the low slung suspension bridge strung over the slough???
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Hah — yes I did see your earlier post with the suspension bridge — that’s what made me think or it as a part of the opening!
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That first photo is so convincing that I thought it was a real murder you’d used to illustrate. He’s a natural at playing possum.
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Did you mean that last reply to me for Marilyn instead?
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yep. I’ll copy and paste. Thanks.
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Should I make it into a prompt, Christine? Would you play? The first invitational short story challenge?
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It would make a good prompt. Alas, this week I made a resolution to take a break from blogging during the month of Oct. Now here comes a temptation to test my commitment. 🙂 I’d better pass.
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Yeh heh heh.. Here comes the devilish temptress. Bet you couldn’t resist if I went ahead and did the challenge! I could make it a two month challenge so you could do it in November!
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Sad to say, I’m so weak that I’d probably do it within a few days and just procrastinate about quitting blogging. 😦
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Ha!! Now that sounds like a bad attempt to convince yourself a good act is a failing!!!
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🙂 See how the chemo-therapy has mixed me up. (At last I find a practical use for it. LOL)
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Reading this a second time and laughing and smiling along with the words.
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I did the same, Bernadette. After a short while it is just like reading something someone else wrote. I reread it because Big Duck had found a blog in India where it was reblogged and was shocked to open it up and find his own face staring back at him. Marvelous world of blogs. It brings us all together. And that is needed in this world.
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That is very cool.
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