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The midwinter sun beat down
on the icy streets. Cars zoomed by quickly, splashing slushy snow on all
they passed. Puddles, a male mallard with a beautiful green neck and head,
and Cuddles, a female mallard with brown mottled feathers, were both
sitting in a pile of snow-covered, dead leaves. They were content to watch
all that was going on around them. From where they sat they could see the
cars on the street, the comings and goings of the people who lived in the
village, and the occasional delivery truck that drove down the small
roads, filled with bottles of water, packages to be delivered to
residents, and others that were carrying carpet cleaning supplies and
equipment.
A few puffy white clouds
floated overhead. Now and then the breeze whispered to them, reminding all
that it was indeed wintertime. Cuddles began to quack. It was soft and
quiet sounding. Puddles looked at her curiously, wondering why. He saw
that several other ducks had walked up from the small stream, heading
towards them. He looked up into the sky to see other ducks flying back
from other places. Some landed in the pond, their legs out front as they
glided across the dark water.
Puddles saw a pair of ducks
heading towards them. He could tell they were going to land in the street.
He started quacking, along with Cuddles, to warn the ducks that the street
was covered with ice. As the two ducks approached, legs out front in a
landing position, Puddles stood up. He quacked and quacked at them. One
landed on the icy road with no problem. The other duck came in for a
landing but when he hit the ice, he couldn’t stop sliding. He slid for
about twenty feet, crashing into a bush.
Cuddles started quacking
with laughter. It looked so funny to see the duck slipping along on the
ice. It actually looked like fun too. She looked at Puddles and quacked.
Then she took off into the air. She flew around the sky for a while and
then headed down to the icy street. When she hit, she went sliding along,
quacking with delight as she glided on the ice. She crashed into the
bushes, where the other duck was, then jumped up.
Puddles thought it looked
like fun, so he tried it too. He loved the feeling on his feathers as he
slid on the ice. Soon other ducks saw and they tried too. After just a
while all the ducks around were sliding on the icy streets, having fun.
Never had there been so much quacking in the village before! |
