Lurch
A Different Duck
This big duck is Lurch. He lives at Eldorado Park. He’s not like any other duck. On Lurch’s side, where he can look back and see himself, he has beautiful shiny green feathers like any mallard. But he’s a different duck. He’s much bigger than other ducks. His head and neck aren’t covered with the same shining green feathers as other males, his feathers are just black and white. Lurch can’t see his head and neck, so he doesn’t get why he’s different from everybody else.
Lurch wanted so bad to be part of the team. (When flying, ducks are called a flock. In a pond they’re called a team, raft, or paddling.) The other ducks didn’t like Lurch. Every time he swam to the team, the other ducks turned on him. It hurt when the other males flapped their wings and raised up out of the water, quacking and splashing to scare him off. It hurt a lot when they just turned their backs and swam slowly away.
So, Lurch spent his time alone. Not far from the team but never too close. He found a couple of friends among the pigeons. Pigeons don’t care if anybody looks weird. They can have white polka dots or have feathers on their legs so it looks like they’re wearing pants. Nobody cares. Pigeons are birds who accept others’ differences. They are cool that way. Ducks are a different story.
Early one morning when the ducks were sleeping on the shore, coyotes came to Eldorado Park. They were young coyotes. Smart, quick, and hungry. They snuck up and were on the sleepy ducks in a flash! The ducks quacked in terror and scrambled to get into the water, but the coyotes pounced!
Lurch knew how to drive things away. He’d seen it many times. He reared up and flapped his giant wings. The coyotes hadn’t ever seen a duck like Lurch. They stared at him with eyes wide open. They looked at each other, then they hightailed it outta there!
Once the ducks recovered from the shock and their hearts stopped beating wildly, they gathered around Lurch. “Thank you,” they quacked. “You saved our lives. You are a hero duck!” They parted to let Lurch paddle proudly into the team where they gathered around him, nuzzled his neck, and playfully bumped him with their beaks. Lurch was so happy. No one had nuzzled him since his mom, when he was little and looked the same as every other brown, fuzzy duckling.
One afternoon a weird looking duck made a rough landing into the pond. The other ducks stared. Lurch stared. He’d never seen a duck so weird. Its head and neck had no coloring except for a green splotch above its beak. He was too big to be a duck like them. The new duck’s feathers were matted and sticking out at weird angles as if he’d been partially plucked.
Newduck hung around for a few days, then one morning he drifted too close to the team. The males floated towards him, and he swam quickly away. Later in the day he got close again, so the males flapped their wings and charged. They called on Lurch to help drive the duck away. He did, but then later, he felt bad. So, Newduck spent his time alone. Not far from the team but never too close.
Lurch’s days were full. He kept a sharp lookout for coyotes and hawks. He kept an eye on Newduck. Once on his morning waddle, he came upon a balloon from a birthday party. Being a curious duck, Lurch waddled close and was surprised to see a different duck in the balloon. It had black and white feathers on its head and neck. It was huge.
Lurch moved and the duck moved. Now you might think ducks aren’t very smart and that may be true. Maybe it was because he looked different or maybe it was because he’d spent so much time alone, trying to understand why the other ducks hadn’t let him into the team. But Lurch was very self-aware and after spending time with the balloon duck, he realized it was him. He was a different kind of duck.
While Lurch was away pondering his existence in the balloon, the other ducks hatched a plan. They didn’t want Newduck on their team or in their nice pond. That duck was different, and they hated him. They were going to drive him away from Eldorado Park for good. If he wouldn’t leave, they would jump on top of Newduck and drown him. So, while Lurch was busy staring into the balloon, they attacked Newduck.
The splashing and quacking distracted Lurch and made him turn from his reflection. He saw his team chasing Newduck. Lurch ran to the shore and flew to the water, landing between the furious team and terrified Newduck. “Quack, ack,ack,ack, QUACK!” he yelled. Translated into human, that meant: “Leave Newduck alone, you raft of foul fowls!” Then he rose to his full height and flapped his big wings. The team stared wide-eyed, beaks agape until one by one, they swam away, quacking under their breath. They didn’t like being driven away by Lurch and liked even less being called foul fowls even though that’s what they were.
Lurch swam over to the terrified duck. Newduck was nervous and swam away but looked back. Lurch smiled. Not with his beak because everybody knows ducks can’t smile with their beaks. Lurch smiled with his big eyes and playfully flicked water at Newduck. From that day on, Lurch and Newduck were inseparable.
They spent the rest of their days paddling and nuzzling in their beautiful pond where they were always too busy having fun to notice the two coyotes having an occasional duck dinner on the shore.
The moral is: don’t be a foul fowl or coyotes will eat you.
Lurch