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Lizzie grabbed the plastic
bag filled with slices of bread and ran out of the front door of her flat.
She was dressed warm, in her winter coat, gloves, hat and boots. The wind
was blowing gently, but enough to fill the air with a chill. She headed
toward the pond behind the building she lived in. Since it was mid-winter,
the water was partially frozen; ice was thick around the edges and growing
day by day towards the center of the pond.
Several ducks were standing
among what were once green bushes, but now only dead stems. Lizzie ran up
to them. She tried to open the plastic bag but her gloved hands made it
difficult. She pulled one of them off with her teeth and dropped the glove
to the ground. She bent over and picked it up and stuffed it into the
pocket of her coat. Her hand slid inside the bag and she grabbed one of
the slices of white bread. She tore small pieces off and tossed them at
the ducks. They began to fight over the morsels of bread. Lizzie tried to
be fair and made sure each duck got a piece. Bright yellow beaks were
nipping the air, and tugging at pieces of browned grass as they tried to
be the first to get the bread.
Lizzie heard some quacking
coming from across the pond. She looked over toward the noise and saw
several dozen ducks, in all sizes, shapes and colors, waddling down the
path that meandered around the lake. They were heading right for her,
merrily quacking and honking as they made their way towards the food they
knew was waiting for them. Lizzie smiled. Many of the ducks had the green
necks, shimmering as emeralds in the reflection of the snow. Many were
brown and dull, but the ducks Lizzie liked best were the white ones. She
laughed when she looked at them. The white of their feathers blended
in with the snow and it looked like orangish-yellow bills and feet
waddling along without a body.
Then Lizzie spotted a
bigger bird, much larger than all the others. It was a goose. It had a
long neck, a black bill, huge and orange, webbed feet and it honked louder
than all the other birds. It seemed to push its way, clumsily, through all
the others, knocking them out of the way as it raced towards Lizzie.
As the crowd of ducks grew
around her, Lizzie began to get a little bit nervous. There were so many,
all quacking hungrily, and she knew she didn’t have enough bread to feed
them all. She gazed down the snow-covered path at the approaching group,
led by the big goose. Suddenly, the goose lowered its long gangly neck,
its head hung near to the ground. It spread its wings out wide and ran
madly towards Lizzie, honking wildly. The ducks all flew out of the way as
it approached.
Lizzie didn’t know quite
what to do. Should she stay there and be attacked by the goose, or should
she run? Before she had the chance to make her choice, the goose was upon
her, trying to nip the bread out of her hand. She pulled it back and held
the pieces of bread high above her head. The goose honked and flapped its
wings. It wanted the bread, now!
Lizzie, still holding the
bread high, ripped a hunk off and fed it to the goose, hoping to satisfy
it. It gobbled it down quickly. She ripped other little hunks off and
threw them down for the ducks, but the goose angrily pushed them out of
the way to get to the bread.
Frustrated Lizzie finally
dropped one entire slice for the goose to eat, then turned and walked down
the path towards her flat. She glanced around and saw that the goose was
still nibbling on his bread. Seeing the opportunity, she threw little bits
down for the ducks, which were following her. She smiled again.
Just then the snow began to
fall. A hush fell over the pond, the quacking stopped and the goose turned
and headed down the path, back to where it had come from. Some of the
ducks hesitantly flew away, off to some unknown destination. Others ran
into the icy, black water and paddled away. Some just waddled down the
path, away from Lizzie.
She stood there alone, her
bread slices waddling away in the belly of a duck or two. She let the huge
fluffy white snowflakes land on her face. They melted as they touched down
on her warm flesh. More flakes landed on her coat, her outstretched arms
and her long, flowing hair that hung out from the bottom of her hat.
As she walked back towards
her apartment, off in the distance she could hear the goose honking, as if
to say, "I’m home!" She smiled and went inside, shutting the door behind
her. |
