Ducktales

By: Grace Zhang

Hi, my name is Alice Heather Meadows. I am 30 years old and married to Dana Tyrone Bryant. We have 2 children, Khloe age 1, and Violet age 4. I have a prosthetic leg, because my real leg was said to be eaten by a shark when surfing, even though I remember that it was a duck.

That caused me to develop a severe phobia of ducks. Doctors say that the cause of my phobia may have been because I had been in a coma and almost drowned which caused my brain to black out.

Now let's get to the point of this story. I was out with my husband one day, having dropped our kids off at my mother and father's house. He asked me, “Alice, do you ever plan on trying to conquer your phobia of ducks?” I thought for a moment.

“I haven’t thought about it,” I responded. “But, I could give it a go!”

“Great!” he responded. The next day, he took our family to a state fair. When we got there, the first place he took us was the petting farm, where Violet and Khloe scurried from stall to stall giggling with glee while feeding and petting the little baby animals. When we reached the baby ducks and chicks, he said, “Why don’t you go and see how cute and harmless the ducks are?” I took a deep breath, and nodded. I carefully stretched my arm out to pet the little fluffy ducklings. I really didn’t regret it. The ducklings were so cute, soft, and smooth. I even pet one of the bigger grown-up ducks!

We decided to treat the girls to some ice cream due to their good behavior. Dana told us that we could adopt an animal, and I responded, “Dana, what are you trying to say?”

He responded,

“Maybe if you wanted to adopt a baby duckling?” Violet immediately looked up.

“Can we pwease adopt a duckie, Mama?” and I responded,

“If your sister wants to.” Khloe said,

“Duckie!” “I guess it's a yes then, I said smiling at Dana. Then Violet exclaimed,

“Can we get two please Daddy?”

“Sure!” he piped, winking at me.

When we got home, Dana immediately began building a little area for the ducklings that Violet had decided to name Fuzzy and Goofy. (She had named the one with the stripes Goofy and the all yellow one Fuzzy.) In the meantime, I made dinner while watching the girls play with Fuzzy and Goofy. I am glad to finally have conquered my phobia of ducks, special thanks to Dana, the girls, and the ducklings!