A Chapter from the book
Sunshine on bare feet

Written and illustrated by Yvonne Brandts-Jansema
 

 Quacking between the reed stems.
   
On a warm spring morning Otto is feeling a bit bored. His friend, Mikkel is visiting relatives, so he can’t play with him today. His sister, Britt is staying with their grandparents in Sandbrook. He has been watching his mother Maren for a while. She is preparing dough to bake bread. Suddenly he has an idea. ‘Can I have some bread to feed the ducks?’ he asks.
His mother gives him a few slices. ‘Be careful!’ she warns him, as usual. ‘Don’t go too close to the water!’
Cheerfully, Otto sets out for the pond where the ducks usually are. Once he arrives, there is not a single duck to be seen. Where are they? That’s too bad, now he still has nothing to do. As he turns to go home, he hears a sound.
Something hidden in the reed is making a squeaking and cracking noise.
Cautiously, he moves in the direction of the sound. There’s a broken egg on the ground between the reed stems. A little duckling is just in the process of crawling out. The boy grins. A little piece of the egg shell is stuck to the head of the little bird. Otto wonders: Where is the mother duck? There is no other duck around.

Maren, Otto's mother

Maybe it’s best to go home and ask Mummy what to do, he decides. So he starts walking home again. After a few steps, he looks over his shoulder and sees that the little fellow is trying to follow him. But the duckling can not keep up as he only has tiny legs. Otto waits for the little duck to catch up. It’s rather funny. Every time Otto moves one step the duckling does the same. Whenever he stops walking, the duckling stops as well. Otto gets down on his knees and stretches out his hand. The little duck immediately climbs up. With the little animal safely in his hands he walks home.
He enters the house and puts the little duck on the floor, in the hall.
‘Stay here,’ he whispers. ‘I don’t think Mummy would want you in the kitchen.’
He opens the door to the kitchen. ‘Mummy!’ he calls out. ‘Mummy!’
‘What’s the matter?’ Maren asks concerned.

The little duckling
Stumbling over his words, Otto tells the whole story. About all the ducks being gone, about the duckling and how it kept following him. At that moment, they hear a soft quacking from behind the door. The duckling must have gotten scared, all alone in that big hallway. ‘Pick him up and hold him in your arms,’ Maren tells her son.
‘He knows you and is not afraid of you. It’s important that he stays warm.’
‘What shall we do with Quackle?’ Otto asks. ‘Can we keep him?’
Maren smiles: ‘So, you already gave him a name, son.’
She tells Otto that it’s not a good idea to keep Quackle. He will be better off living with his mother and his siblings. That way he can learn everything a duck needs to know.
That’s the reason they go looking for the ducks right away. Otto carries Quackle and they slowly walk back to the pond. Mummy has an idea where the other ducks might be. They probably are a bit further along the pond, where there is even more reed. The little ducklings will be safer there because there are more places to hide.

Otto & Quackle

Mummy is right. Behind the next corner they see some adult ducks swimming in the water.
And behind them is a mother duck with six little ducklings. That must be Quackle’s mother.
‘Just put the duckling down on the ground,’ Mummy says. Otto carefully puts Quackle down, near the other ducklings. The little duck immediately starts to quack in a pitiful way. Otto reaches out to pick him up again but Maren stops him. The mother duck has heard the quacking too. She comes to Quackle and brings him to the other ducklings. A few moments later, she splashes into the water, followed by seven little ones. ‘Look,’ Otto cries out. ‘Quackle can already swim and he is just a few hours old!’ Maren and Otto keep watching the ducks for a while. Then they go back to the house. Otto still has a question: ‘How come the mother duck abandoned Quackle?’ Of course, Maren can not be sure, but she does have an idea what might have happened.
‘I think the other ducklings hatched much earlier than Quackle did. The mother duck must have assumed that the egg was empty. That happens sometimes. That’s why she left with the other ducklings.’
 

Otto's father Teis
Otto happily sighs: ‘Luckily I came by, or Quackle would have died for sure.’
Daddy Teis is just leaving his workshop when they arrive at the house. Otto runs to him to tell him the whole story. Daddy is also very glad that Otto saved the duckling. The next day Britt comes home.
That afternoon they visit the ducks again at the pond. Mummy brought some bread with her. Otto and Britt tear the bread into little pieces and throw them into the water.
Soon all the ducks approach them. Finally, the mother duck and her seven babies arrive too. ‘Look, Britt,’ Otto points out. ‘That one over there, with the little brown spot near his tail, that’s my Quackle.’ His parents share a smile. From that day on, Otto always looks out for Quackle. After all, in a way, it is HIS duck.

Otto's sister Britt

 

 

 
 


© Yvonne Brandts 2004
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