I was partaking in my regular evening stroll, when this rather strange event took place. It was all hunky dory to start with. The soil was moist, as it is wont to be near a pond. This pond had been the center of my life for quite a few years now. There was something about it. May be it was the serenity it reflected, or the beautiful stream that fed into it, whose origin I have often mused upon.
Well I simply love this evening stroll. This is when I let carelessness creep in, as I let go of all worries, and just strolled along; when suddenly out of nowhere, a duck popped into the scene. It had the demeanor of a duck, which had just found a new pond. I observed this beautiful creature with amusement. It was slowly paddling across the width and breadth of this pond. Then it happened — my eyes met those of the duck. Our eyes remained in a grid-locked state for god knows how long. Then, the duck and me, having weighed each other out, continued about our own ways.
As I continued to stroll, I had this strange sensation… This duck, though serene looking, seemed to represent a very deep malice. A sudden feeling of insecurity crept into my heart. What if this duck planned to remain in the pond and its surroundings for as long as it wished, and what if, “as long as it wished”, turned out to be eternity itself. I was used to being alone during my strolls around this pond. This duck was now going to be a constant reminder of the fact that I was no more to be alone during these strolls.
Here again, I would like to reinforce, that I did not have anything against this duck. If it had chosen any other pond, I would have admired it for the beauty of it’s feathers, for there was a certain uniform pattern in them, but now that this duck was set on inflicting itself upon the scenery that I had gotten myself acquainted to, a sudden desire oozed into my mind, that something had to be done about this intruder.
The question was, what? I couldn’t be rude, and try to intimidate it. Inaction on the other hand, was totally unacceptable. I had heard somewhere that when you looked up toward the sky, and a bird happened to see you do it, it would almost certainly fly up. So I tried to look up, here and there, and I am pretty sure I got the duck’s attention, but it simply did not seem to be interested in taking flight. This proved to be the undoing of my life, as the duck swooped in, and took me in, in one gulp. Well, that’s a worm’s life, you would say, but what would you know of it…
