The Little Frog & Duck Boy in the I.E. Part 9

So there you have it, the tale of two grown men who in one evening dragged an innocent child down to their level via the glorification of farting poultry. It was an aromatic job but one that needed doing, nevertheless.

That was the last night I would be at Alain's. Since ‘She’ was still in the hospital, a host of relatives was due to descend The Little Frog and Duck Boy the next day and Alain needed to be tending to family business. There was one more stop on my itinerary in Rancho Santa Margarita about an hour north and west of Murrieta and then on Sunday, I would one again commit my body, soul and trembling psyche to the tender care of America West Airlines for the return trip to Dulles Airport.

There was another reunion on this trip but it is one I'll not get into just now. The balance of that story is yet to unfold, even for me and time will sort it all out. If I were totally comfortable with the idea of destiny I might be more inclined to wade right in. Still, the last year and a half has been a remarkable period in my life, one during which I have learned a lot and changed a lot but that’s nest saved for another day.

I've delayed posting this final accretion, trying, vainly as it turns out, to come up with some suitable denouement but the loose ends have defied my efforts to tie them up. I thought perhaps there would be some final seed of humor or insight that I could drag out to neatly wrap this up; I was either wrong or unsuccessful in finding such.

The trip back to Washington was a mixture of numbing emotional flatness and a repeating loop of a wonderful but seemingly all too brief interval. I suppose that the freshly created memories did make the transition back into the daily routine easier at first but the rhythmic rut of daily life quickly reclaimed its dominance of my reality.

Thanks to you all for having the patience to wade through all this. If you have read this far I suppose there must have been really one or two moments in the tale that were worth telling. I'm returning to California in September for another visit. The anticipation is beginning to build and perhaps there will be more to tell.

Until then, may all your encounters with the south end of a northbound duck be at the appropriate distance and if not….wait for it!