My Evil Mother
Written by Audrey Vesta Chang
Once upon a time, there lived a Mother Duck who had laid her 7 eggs in a farm. Surprisingly, one egg was a little larger than the rest. Mother Duck lived on a very, very large farm, and she gets ¼ of it! It was a bright, spring morning, with the smell of grass clippings a mile away.
As she gazed at the little pond far away, when all of a sudden, one of the eggs started to crack! Then came another, then another! While the six eggs were hatching, the larger egg had only started tilting. A week later, Mother Duck woke up seeing 6 beautiful, colorful ducklings, and one ugly, black feathered duck. He was larger than the others, just the egg. So, she figured out that it was him.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself that you know this story, however you don’t know the TRUE story of The Ugly Duckling. It turns out that although Mother Duck loved her children, she just felt like she had to judge a book by its cover…
While the other ducklings played tag near the pond, my brother, Khi, ugly duckling, was sitting near a tall, Weeping willow tree, reading a book. I, Chi, wanted him to get, at least, some attention, so I asked Mother.
“Mother, can I play with Khi,” I asked.
“Certainly NOT! Why would a beautiful, pink duckling like you, play with such a ugly duckling like him,”
Mother laughed.
I slowly turned away and muttered, “Fine!”
“I CAN’T let any of my friends see him! It’ll be such a
shame,” Mother thought, “Oh, I got an idea! I’ll just have to set up a trap and poison him in the woods!”
After Mother had told her children her plan, they all agreed since they also hated Khi. Mother hid behind a bush. Her kids put tiny bits of crumbs on the ground. The crumbs lead into the woods. There was a cage about 5 inches away from the last crumb. A few minutes later, Khi started following the crumbs, but he didn’t eat them. He followed, and followed, until he noticed that the crumbs turned dark purple.
“Even though I like to eat breadcrumbs, I don’t eat poisoned ones,” explained Khi as he turned away.
“How did he figure out that the crumbs were poisoned?! My friends couldn’t even tell,” Mother thought as she walked out of the bush.
“Mommy, how did he figure it out?” asked one of my siblings.
But Khi had already gone home and sat near the tree again, even though he felt a little suspicious…
Although Mother Duck failed in Plan A, she had Plan B already planned!
“Khi, let’s go on a walk, you and me,” Mother told Khi.
After a while, in the woods, it started getting darker and darker every step. Has Mother decided to poison Khi in the woods?
“Mother, it’s getting dark. I can’t see anything,” explained Khi.
But no one had answered back. Meanwhile, I had been following them the WHOLE TIME!
“Mother is trying to abandon you because she thinks that you don’t have colorful feathers like us,” I explained.
“Then what should I do,” cried Khi.
“Let’s go home,” I whispered as I lit up the candle I had stored in my backpack.
As we walked home, I told him ALL about Mother’s next plan.
“Plan C is to abandon you at midnight when you’re asleep,” I explained.
“Why do I have to be SO different from others,” asked Khi as he dried his tears.
“It’s what makes you unique from others,” I replied. It’s sure hard to make people feel better!
Mother walked back and forth, wondering how he had made his way back.
Mother looked like she’d be saying,“I better abandon Khi as soon as possible,”
I kinda heard her say, “He’s gonna be a shame to our family,” Mother looked impatient while she ate her dinner.
I whispered to khi, “Stay awake at night, or else she’ll poison you.”
He nodded, slowly. I could tell that he’s tired, and doesn’t have the energy to stay awake tonight. So I’m staying up tonight!
~Midnight already~
As I thought, he couldn’t stay awake, and Mother was standing right there! I had to do something! Mother had sent me to karate class, but I don’t want to include any violence though. Mother has already picked Khi up, and he looks like he’s in a deep sleep! I pretended to wake up because of the footsteps.
“Mother, you forgot to hand me a glass of milk before bed,” I reminded her as I got out of bed.
To be honest with you, she didn’t actually ‘tell’ me the plan. I just ‘overheard’ them.
“What are you holding,” I asked.
There was an awfully long silence.
“What are you holding,” I asked again as I impatiently tapped my foot.
“Sweetie, your milk is downstairs-”
“Mother, I already know-” I explained.
Mother interrupted, “Oh, good! Then can you help me, since-”
“…and I’m on HIS side, so you may want to,” I paused.
Mother dashed outside in the blink of an eye! Wow, she is fast! I chased her all the way to the park, however, I lost her when she made a turn. When suddenly, Kaki the cat from my Karate class, spotted me panting on the sidewalk and asked, “Are you exercising,”
“The total opposite,” I explained.
“So you’re running for no reason, at all” he asked.
“Yes- well, no. Ugh! I don’t know,” I told him as I took a big breath.
After I told him why I was running, he decided to help me. Now I believe that cat’s have great ears! He caught up with her in the flash of lightning.
“Don’t pounce! She’ll notice us,” I whispered as I took out the medicine I bought from a nearby pharmacy. It was used to cure poison.
We observed the scene, and we saw Mother take out the tiny glass tube of poison out of her pocket.
“Stop right there,” I shouted.
“H-how did you find me?!” asked Mother, surprised.
“What do you think? I guess you’re the one who’s caught red-handed,” laughed Kaki as he started walking out of the bush, “I even called the cops, hah.”
“Uh oh…” gulped Mother as she dropped the poison on the ground. The tube crashed into pieces. She tried to run, however the cops pulled up.
“Arrest her!” yelled the police.
As they handcuffed her, she yelled, “Oh, you’ll pay for that one!” Khi woke up after all that commotion. (lucky for him)
“I think I know what we should do to keep us away from trouble,” I explained.
Trust me, I had NEVER had to face this before! We went into our rooms, face in a pillow, because we were SO tired. Once I woke up, I wanted to maybe read some news. I COULDN’T BELIEVE MY EYES! It stated that Mother has already escaped from prison! All of my siblings are sleeping, which means Khi is too. Then, there was a huge BANG on the door.
“CHI, YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!!!” scolded Mother outside. Her screaming is like it could break, even the thickest of glass!
“Khi, pack your clothes! We need to get outta here right now!” I warned him as I headed up the barn.
Khi folded his blue-patched T-shirt as quickly as possible. I packed a bunch of important materials we needed. The banging got louder and louder, then came a crash as loud as thunder! I suddenly remembered the emergency exit in Khi’s room.
“I’LL FIND YOU, CHI! I WILL!” hollered Mother Duck.
I could hear her footsteps getting closer and closer every second. I ran in Khi’s room with my bag of supplies that we needed to last the rest of the day.
“The emergency exit, Khi!” I shouted.
We carefully and quickly went down the ladder, and ran as fast as we could.
“Now, I guess we need to find a new owner,” suggested Khi, “and a GOOD one,” We laughed a little.
Yeah, I guess so,” I agreed.
After a long hike over some mountains, we FINALLY found an owner! An elderly welcomed us in and gave us a bed to sleep, food to eat, and a person who really cares. Now that was the REAL story of The Ugly Duckling, and we lived…
Happily, Ever, After!
