| "Don't worry," the stork replied reassuringly, "we'll re-attach his feet so that they both face the same direction as before!" Still not fully convinced, the mother duck decided at least she could find out what this treatment would cost, and so she asked. "Do you have health insurance?" the stork asked, as he looked over her large brood. "I have an HMO, but I'm sure they'll never go for something like that," she remarked. Hoping to at least get some start on an operation, she pleaded, "Could you just put it on my bill?" "No," the stork bluntly replied. "Hmmmmmmm," said the stork, as he thought about his fee. "Tell you what, I'll do the operation if you'll give me two of your other ducklings in trade." (He was running an illegal adoption agency on the side.) And the mother exclaimed, "No, no, NO! That will not do! Just to save one, I've got to give up two?" And so she marched out of the doctor's office with all her flock, including the big unlikely duckling, too. Though at first the mother duck stood by him, in the weeks after his hatching the "duckling" was taunted by his brothers and sisters, and hen-pecked by the other barnyard animals. The ducklings would taunt him with, "Got no web between his toes! Who is the father? No one knows!" And, "Hey, where did you get that beak from, Geeks R Us?" Then they would peck at his feathers and push him into a corner of the barnyard, where they would continue their taunts and bullying. Frightened, the unlikely duckling would only cower in retreat, hating them all for tormenting him like this. He looked different, walked different, and sounded different from all of the other ducklings in the barnyard. Eventually, his mother gave up on him, too. Protecting him from barnyard bullies and tauntings became too risky for her. She had recently joined a high-profile club, Ducks Unlimited, and didn't want to lose her standing in the eyes of the other members, as well as the barnyard community at large. Finally, after enduring endless taunts about no webbing between his toes, his feathers being darker in color than his brothers and sisters, and his beak was not at all like a duck's bill, it was more than he could take. So, he dropped out of school, packed up a few things to take with him, and he ran away from home. |