or probably any lunch, next winter. but there was a spare lunch in hospital. someone finished their cancer treatment early. the problem is the infusion usually starts at about 10:15am and by lunch time i’m starting to get a little nauseous. but still hungry enough to eat. but not hungry enough to eat two lunches. or even puddings.
went home. slept. a good sleep, too. i woke up thinking it was morning. then the phone rang. it was the old bugger. i think he wanted to shout at me, but didn’t. it was all very confusing. i’m not a morning person. but it was late afternoon. or was it? i didn’t know. and then all of a sudden i’m having a one sided conversation about making a duck pen. he can’t wait for some peking duck. alarm bells in the back of my mind but no time to pay them any attention. because where is that spare fencing mesh that was behind the greenhouse? he couldn’t find it. searched high and low for hours. can i dig out the old fencing mesh in the middle of the garden for the peas? we’ll use that. he tried to but its rusted stuck into the ground. he’s also painted some rain gutters. he’ll put them up the next day. you watch, now it wont rain all winter. ha-ha. how’d my hospital treatment go?
uhh, fucking… wait. what was that about ducks?
he’s getting some ducks. he’s going to make a pen for them. in the garden. under the kiwifruit vine. we’re going to be eating peking duck for months.
“we”?
yep. he has an amazing recipe for duck. just wait and see.
why do i have a bad feeling about… oh. now i remember. walking into his house one winter. some god-awful smell. a large pot full of boiling ducks. and one chicken. the old bugger waving me over. hopping about in excitement. grabbing some tongs. a bag. a duck. a bagged, boiled duck shoved into my hands.
it’s too early in the morning for this.
if i’m feeling well enough the next day, can i go up and help him dig out the old pea fence to make a duck pen? or we could find that lost fencing mesh. but only if i’m feeling well. we could do it the day after. or the day after that.
okay. the fencing mesh is between the pigsty pumpkin patch and the beans on the back fence. you wouldn’t have seen it there because it’s covered in vines and pumpkins. i tell him i’ll come up tomorrow afternoon and get it. as if i’m not distracted enough i’m already thinking about some time in the next few months when i’ve befriended, named, fed, watered and otherwise tended for these ducks. there’s going to come a phone call. with a boiling pot in the background.
but i’ve strangled more than my fair share of ducks. when dead, they quack their last quack if you squeeze them too hard. but those were wild ducks and i didn’t know their names.
oh, well.
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