Lessons From Ducks Read Online Free PDF

ignore the customer or serve them with exaggerated indifference, as if they were doing you the favour by bothering to assist you. Still, Anna persisted with her niceties.
    At the gate she noticed with alarm that yet more paint chips came away under her hand, and she made a mental note to check the brand of paint left in the tin in the shed and avoid it when making her next selection.
    Halfway up the garden path they heard her, and with a chorus of QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK’S they rounded the corner, skidding to a halt at her feet, the two in the rear connecting beak to feathered tail with the leaders after their fruitless efforts to stop on time.
    ‘QUACK’ they said crossly, shaking the heads and attempting to restore dignity.
    “At least someone is happy to see me,” Anna smiled gratefully.
    ‘QUACK’
    “Oh I just had a run in with a lady at the supermarket. It has left me a little depressed, if I’m honest.”
    ‘QUACK QUACK’
    “Yes, I’m aware of the time.”
    ‘QUACK’
    “Yes I’m sure you are hungry, but can I just have a moment to pretend that it’s me you’re delighted to see and not the bag of food in my arms?”
    ‘QUACK’
    “Thank you.”
    She watched them fondly for a minute before the quacking become quite indignant, and with a sigh she told them – “Meet you round back” – and let herself into the front door. She was filled with an immediate sense of belonging the second she stepped over her threshold.
    Home.
    Closing the world outside behind her she stepped over a stray t-shirt (“oh”, she sighed, “I guess I’ll pick that up shall I?”) and made her way to the kitchen where she unpacked her purchases. She fed the ducks and checked on Mrs Dudley, who, upon seeing Anna, lumbered to her feet with the duck equivalent of a groan and waddled out through a gap in the barricade to dine with the others.
    “I’ll just babysit these guys for you shall I?” Anna called after her.
    She tried to lift a few flax leaves to check on the eggs and confirm her earlier count but a warning quack saw her drop them again hurriedly. Once Mrs Dudley was sated and comfortable back on the nest Anna headed back into the house. On her way upstairs to change she picked up the clothing dotted around the floor and placed them in the laundry hamper.
    “I must do some washing soon,” she noted, as the hamper was over three quarters full.
    Back downstairs, now in comfortable tights and a long green tunic top, she smiled to herself as she collected toys from various positions and put them back into the toy box. Then she made herself a cup of tea and sat at the kitchen island to drink it. A fly landed near her hand and she watched it; its delicate wings threaded through with what looked like black veins, and its mirrored eyes giving her the uncomfortable feeling that it was observing her magnified times ten. She coughed and it flew away, close enough to her ear that she could hear the buzzing noise it made. Was the noise from its mouth or its wings? 
    A lawnmower whirred somewhere in the neighbourhood, occasionally spluttering as something temporarily clogged up the petrol pipe. A muffled thud indicated that a kick was all that was required to clear it.
    From time to time she heard a quack from one of the ducks as they fought over the most popular sleeping spots in the garden.
    She could hear cars in the distance, and someone whistling for their dog on the reserve that backed onto the cul de sac.
    In Anna’s house, the silence didn’t just echo; it bounced off rafters, slid down windowpanes, rolled off benches and skidded across the floor.

Chapter four
     
    Her resolve lasted almost two weeks but on the Thursday at the end of the second week she decided enough time had passed for any furore to have quietened down. After work she stopped by a cafe and ordered a large creamy caramel hot chocolate as a treat – managing to ignore the tempting brownies that beckoned to her from within the cabinet - and