Story #1 “Duck Tales”

Duck Tales
“Mom, Chris and Pete are here, they want to go to the park. Can I go?” Scott shouted from the front door after answering it and seeing his two best
friends. ” I will not answer you until you come here.” shouted back Mom. Scott rolled his eyes and told his friends to hold on and headed toward the kitchen
where he knew his mom was. His mom was busy making cupcakes for the bake sale that is to raise money for the summer program at the community center. Emily,
Scott’s little sister was helping her mom. ” Come on , Mom. I will only be gone a couple of hours.” Scott whined “It’s the first day of summer and I already
cleaned my room.”. Emily chimed in “I wanna go too.”. Mom thought about it. As much as she loves baking with her daughter the fact that Emily is a 5 year old
that finds sneaking a taste of the frosting makes getting the cupcakes done alittle harder.” Take you sister.” Mom says as she puts a new batch of cupcakes
in the oven. This was her way of letting Scott know he could go, but that only if he took his sister.”oh Mom!” whined Scott. He was 10 years old, even is his
little sister was in fact his little brother ( which he wishes all the time she was) with her being half his age was hard for him to have any fun with
her.Mom gives him and look and he knows that his whineing will not work here. ” Come on, Em” he says disgruntlely.” Can we take our bikes?” asked Scott
hopingly to Mom. “Fine, But you are responiable for your sister and her bike”. Scott figured if Emily had her bike she could ride and leave him and his
friends alone. “Bye Mom!” Emily says as she jump down from the stool she was sitting on and runs to give her mom a kiss. Mom was not worried about the kids
getting hurt or worse, at least not all that much. The park is just over a block away and on the same side of the street. Plus the small town they live in is
so close knit that the people across from the park and likely to to keep an eye on the kids, more so Emily with the call she makes to them as the kids head
to the grage to get their bikes.

Now at the park Emily has been left to play by herself as her brother and his friends sat in the treehouse clubhouse that the community dads and sons
group built last year. Emily can not climb with out her dad there as he told her on a previous trip to the park. After playing on the slide and swings for a
few minutes, Emily gets bored of them and walks to the small pond that sits in the center of the park. She likes watching the ducks people fishing in the
pond. As she gets closer she sees this one “very pretty” duck near a bench waddling around. She could tell he was not a baby duckling nor was he a grown
duck. That he must be a “kid” duck. ” Quack Quack” she calls out as she gets closer. But her hurried manner scares the young duck away back into the water.
She sees him land with the finesse of a airplane landing smoothly. And it hits her. ” Hey Walter!” She calls to the duck. The name just seemed so right since
he seemed so at home in the water. Over the next hour she call to him at first to just receive a cold shoulder from the duck then he seemed to take a liking
to her and it was almost as if he was playing with her and calling out to her fron the pond. When she left she yelled out a promise to “Walter to be back
soon to visit him.
The next day Emily was back. This time she came with her mom. They just dropped off cupcakes for the bake sale and Emily pleaded with her mom since
getting home last nightto go back, telling her mom all about Walter. Her mom found it cute that Emily thinks she found a friend in a duck so decided to humor
her and take her to see him. They brought some old bread for Walter and a picnic for themselves. Scott went to spend the next few night with his friend and
in a few days the boys will be all at there house, So Mom was getting in any quiet relaxing time she could get.But to Mom’s surprise. Walter seem to actaully
befriend emily too even after Emily gave him every morsal of the bread he did not leave their picnic and actually ended up laying down slightly close to
Emily and falling asleep. what was more amazing was this time when Emily got ready to leave, Walter started to follow her and even when mom told him to stop
as long as Emily didn’t say anything it was like he was set to go with her. Finally Emily tolds her friend to stay and that she would see himthe next day.
And she did. As a matter of fact she saw him almost every day that summer.

Then the first day of school comes and she is starting 1st grade. She could not be more excited. Halfway thru the day she thinks to herself “I wanna
share this with Walter.”. So when her Dad picked her up from school she asked to be taken to the park. By this point the whole family was aware that Emily
had made friend with Walter and that being near him makes her happy so her daddrove to the park that crisp Fall day.When they got there though, She could not
find him anywhere. she called and but he never came. And as she looked around she noted that all the ducks were gone.she begain to cry thinking someone took
her friend away. He dad pick her up and put her in the car where she continued to silently cry for her friend. When they got home Dad turned around in his
seat and explained to Emily how more than likely all the ducks have flown south for the winter and that Walter would more than likely be back in the spring.
Emily missed Walter, but her dad never lied to her so she is certain what he said was true. She ask her mom to help her count down the days til spring,
whereas her mom got her a calendar for Emily to mark each day off. Which she did. Finally the first day of spring comes, before school as they drove past she
looked out the window to the park and could see there were no ducks. But she did not give up and after school she went back again. This time when she walked
up she could see there were a few ducks. She hurried to the pond and scaned the water. And there in the middle of the water was a now grown Walter ( she just
knew it was him) and his “wife” and 4 little duckings. And Emily smiled.