Eva’s Duck ages 7-9

Eva’s Duck
By: Lisa Lowe Stauffer

When Eva visited her aunt’s farm, she begged, “Please, can I take an egg home to hatch? Please?”

Aunt Jo laughed. “What will your Mom and Dad say?”

“They’ll like having a pet duck,” Eva said.

So Aunt Jo packed one fresh egg in a box full of cotton. Eva cradled it in her lap during the whole airplane trip from Iowa to Georgia.

“Eva,” said Mom at the airport. “What’s in the box?”

“If we keep it warm, I’ll have a pet,” said Eva.

Mom sighed.

Eva put the egg in a bowl and made it cozy with a heating pad.

Day after day Eva took care of the egg. She turned it over. She talked to it. She made sure it stayed warm.

At last the egg began to crack. It took hours from the first crack until a tiny beak poked through the shell and a scruffy, yellow baby duck wiggled its way out.

“Hooray!” sang Eva. “Now I have a pet.”

“Is it a boy or a girl?” asked Mom.

“Aunt Jo said we’d have to wait to see when it gets its grown-up feathers.”

“What will you name it?” asked Mom.

“Taylor,” said Eva. “That works if it’s a boy or a girl.”

Taylor shook and went to sleep in Eva’s lap.

Eva put a wading pool in the backyard for Taylor to swim in. And she fed Taylor food from the pet store. Soon the duckling could catch bugs to eat, too. Its two favorite foods were canned corn and mosquitoes. Taylor would eat corn until its craw was so full it bulged. Eva smashed mosquitoes when they tried to bite her, then she fed them to Taylor.

As Taylor grew, the duck followed Eva’s white tennis shoes everywhere.

“He thinks your shoes are his mother,” said Mom.

Soon Taylor was big enough to follow Eva down the street to the lake. There were wild mallard ducks there. Taylor hid behind Eva’s shoes. He was scared of the other ducks.

Eva took Taylor out in a boat and put him in the water to swim with the wild ducks. Taylor tried to climb back into the boat.

“Quack!” he said, which Eva thought meant, “I’m not a duck, I’m a person. Let me back in the boat!”

By the end of the summer, Taylor started losing his baby feathers. Soon he had a green head, a gray body, and brown wings, just like the wild mallards, only Taylor was bigger.

“Hooray! Now I know Taylor is a boy duck,” said Eva.

Eva thought it was time for Taylor to learn to fly. She showed him how to hold his wings and flap. Then she tossed him in the air—just as high as her knee. But he flopped to the ground. Again and again Eva tried to teach Taylor to fly.

“I guess farm ducks don’t fly,” said Mom.

“Except on airplanes,” said Eva.

Every day Eva and Taylor walked to the lake. Eva threw bread for the other ducks to eat, and Taylor peeked out from behind Eva’s white shoes to eat some too.

After weeks of hiding, Taylor stopped being afraid of the wild ducks. He even followed them into the lake to swim. But when Eva went home, so did Taylor.

Fall came and Eva had to go to school every morning. After she got on the bus, Taylor began taking himself to the lake and spending the day with the other ducks. Eva took his food to the lake after school, and all the ducks hurried to her to eat. Then Taylor waddled home with Eva, to sleep in his pen in the backyard.

One night, Taylor stayed at the lake. Eva was worried and went to look for him in the morning. She found him sleeping on the dock with two other ducks, his head tucked under one wing.

“Taylor!” Eva said. “You didn’t come home last night. I was worried.”

Taylor untucked his head, and looked at Eva. “Quack!” he said.

And Eva knew he meant the lake was his home now. He had figured out he was a duck after all.

~The End~

(Taylor lived out his natural life at the lake. Eva and her family visited him often. He never did learn to fly.)

Stories for Children Magazine

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