Little Duckington Episode 2 – Goings on at the Drunken Drake…

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It’s night time in Little Duckington.

Little Dukington’s a quiet and sleepy place, supper is over by six, children are tucked-up in bed by seven, the doors are shut at eight, and by nine o’clock most of the houses are in darkness. But tonight is different. Tonight, the lights remain on all over town.

Something is happening in Little Duckington….

The Drunken Drake is very busy tonight. It’s usually very quiet on a Monday night; a couple of old ducks sipping their pints in a corner, remembering when they were ducklings, and a few of the local lads having a pint or two of ‘Webster’s’ and playing pool.

Pool’s an interesting game. Each duck in turn gets into the pool; they pick up a bag of coloured balls with their bills and swim out into the centre. Once they get to the centre they empty the balls into the water so that they lie randomly on the bottom, then all they have to do is dive for the balls and bring them to the surface placing them in small nets positioned at intervals around the edge. The balls have to be collected in the right colour order; pink, blue, red, black, purple, green, yellow, brown, and then finally, all eight reds. The winner is the duck who can collect all of the balls, in the correct colour order, and in the fastest time.

Most pubs have a ‘Pool’ pool, and the ‘Drunken Drake’ is no exception; these days it’s usually an inflatable, but the ‘Drunken Drake’ has an original cobble pool built into the floor of the games room, it’s very old. Not that anybody seems to be playing tonight, they all seem to be standing at the bar drinking.

Sailor Dave seems to be enjoying his pint. I wonder where his three bothers are; DJ Dave, Diver Dave, and Skater Dave – the four Daves, the four Dave Duck brothers.

Denzil is at his usual waddle (place) at the bar. He’s become a regular at the ‘Drunken Drake’. I’m not sure that he’s ‘of age’, but ducks don’t carry ID, and he’s not quacking on.

Delilah is behind the bar, she seems very busy and more customers have just come in through the door. It’s the other Daves - they’ll be wanting three pints of the usual.

And isn’t that Dubby at the bar? He spends so much time in here recently that I’m surprised he hasn’t got his name carved into it. Yes, it looks like Dubby… but who’s that next to him? Am I seeing Dubby double? I shouldn’t be - I haven’t been drinking - but I can see two ducks and they both look like Dubby. There can’t be two Dubbys, can there?

Wait a minute! I know who it is, that’s Dubby’s first cousin from Australia, that’s Dunny Duck! I didn’t know that he was in town!

That explains everything. I should have guessed; it wasn’t Dubby we saw kissing Delilah after all, it was Dunny!

Wait another minute; what’s Dubby saying? He ‘wishes his cousin and his soon to be wife Delilah, the very best of duck luck’. So that’s what all the excitement and visiting is all about - Dunny and Delilah are getting married!

So this must be Dunny’s ‘Drake’ night, his last night as a 'free duck' – no wonder the pub is so busy.

Thank goodness! Dilly and the children have nothing to worry about; Dubby isn’t ducking around with Delilah - he’s perfectly innocent. How could we have thought the worst of him? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

So there’s going to be a wedding in Little Duckington. I can hardly wait.

Come on, let’s leave. I can see that this Drake Night is going to get serious; and even rubber ducks have a tendency to turn wild after they’ve had a drink or two.