Duck Duck Goose

One ordinary summer morning, I was driving to Trader Joe's with Benja and Lotta. Benja suddenly had a phone call from his dad, who led with, "Do you want to be a hero today?" To which Benja resonded with an excited "YES" and immediately tried to exit the moving vehicle. (Ladybirding it, as I later called it after the teenager in the movie LadyBird opened the door while riding in a car). He asked if I could take him home. I inquired what was happening. He said there were some ducklings stuck in the storm sewers and his dad was trying to rescue them. I drove back home and as I neared the stop sign near our house, Benja AND Lotta jumped out of the van. Thom had already taken off the grate to the storm sewer and he'd jimmy rigged a net to a long pole to try to reach the ducklings. The mamma duck was on the sidewalk loudly protesting what was happening. Benja immediately jumped INTO the storm drain (which was about as tall as he is) and began looking around. The problem was, each time, we would try to retrieve them, the group would escape and begin walking down one of the pipes. As people would pass, I would explain about the ducklings. Many a car would drive out of its way or slow waay down in order to avoid hitting the mamma duck. When I explained to one of our neighbors, he said, "oh shit", and it was the first time that entire afternoon I felt the cold hand of doom, and thought we might actually NOT be able to reunite those ducklings to their mamma. Two women from an apartment building up the street noticed our shenanigans and from across the street starting yelling that Animal Control had already been out and was unable to rescue the ducklings. These two women reminded me of characters you would see sitting on their front stoop in Queens. They were NEVER not with a cigeratte. When I described them to a friend, she called them, Thelma and Agnes. Which feels accurate. Throughout that afternoon, they kept coming back out and asking for updates. At one point, we were able to get ONE of the ducklings out, and we started to reunite it with its mother. Thelma and Agnes informed us that animal control had said NOT to reunite just one because the mother would abandon the rest of them. We were super excited to get the one out. It felt like a victory. Benja also called one of his best friends to join us in the search, she showed up and she and Benja kept checking out all the storm drains around the block for quacking sounds. At one point, we rescued four ducklings and put them in a cardboard box. I called animal control and a woman showed up. A man rode by on his bike and told us a story of how he'd had a moment by the lake with a gull, where they'd just connected. Then, the gull flew away and was immediately hit by a car. The man was appalled because the car didn't even slow down, even though the bird was obviously injured. As animal control is trying to capture the mother duck to take her to the lake, she gets a call that there is an injured gull. I mean, the man who'd told me the story was still standing there and we couldn't believe it. The Animal Control person was much less impressed than we were about the coincidence. Anyway, she left me an actual animal control net, because there was still ONE duckling missing. We hadn't ever seen the missing duckling in our explore, but Thelma and Agnes had assured us we were missing one. (To which I took as "This is my job now", Benja and his friend saluted me when they saw it.) Anyway, this couple walked by and I once again told the story, this time while holding a REAL animal control net, and they were dismayed that one of the ducklings was still at large. And I tried to convince them to NOT be upset because we had rescued FOUR other ducklings. Yes, they said, but that ONE is still gone...and it reminded me of my family. Becuase our eldest died of a brain tumor. And I can often tell that this impacts how everyone thinks about our family and I understand. But also, we have THREE very much alive children who are thriving. Ultimately, I somehow feel responsible for how much this might impact others. And maybe, just like the one missing baby duckling, I could let others feel whatever they need to feel rather than doing a whole song and dance to convince them otherwise. Anyway, animal Control returned, retrieved their net, and slowly walked the baby ducklings (in a crate chirping away) down the street, as the mother duck followed. That morning we'd woken up regular people but went to bed heroes. You just never know what the day will bring.