ducks

"ducks!" yells the sweetie as we pull into a parking space at the local grocery store. i would like to say my brain and body work together well enough that i hit the floor of the car as soon as i hear his voice. but no. the lack of brain/body coordination, coupled with a knowledge that the sweetie doesn't fumble his words, means i look up, expecting to see a flock of birds overhead.

i should explain that i'm no stranger to wildlife, especially large bird wildlife. i can no more explain why the thought of a duck nearby thrills me than i can explain why i like old buttons or horseradish. they are common enough but somehow worth having. we get out of the car and there on the pavement between us and the store are twenty or so fat ducks, some green headed, all orange footed. a wonderful waddling mass. and more fall from the sky all around us like those huge wet clumps of snow, landing on hidden feet then rolling forward like they're slamming on their brakes too hard. crash landings. not like when they land on water at all. or maybe exactly like that, which is why it looks so clownish on pavement.

we walk toward the front door of the store and forty ducks close in on us the way cowboys do in showdowns, wide of stance and unafraid. the sweetie holds out a hand, pretends to have food. they swarm. i worry what they will do when they find him foodless. i think of the phrase pecked to death by ducks. i'm sure it is a very slow process and i figure i can step in and rescue him if it comes to that. but there are these forty little feather covered animals here, wild things coming right out of the sky and wanting our attention. we wade through the ducks to do our little bit of shopping and i head next door to another store and then meet the sweetie outside.

i think the ducks will be waiting for me in the parking lot and am more than a little surprised they are not. they were, the sweetie tells me, but a little girl chased them all off. for a minute i think she is awful. then i think about what it must have been like to run screaming and flapping into that mess of forty ducks, how it felt when all that wind whipped up, all those bodies lifted and flew. i would have done exactly the same thing.