QUACK

Sometimes, when you feel that all hope is lost, something happens that completely changes your outlook, and restores your faith in humanity, albeit just a little bit.

So I was driving home from Airport West Shopping Centre yesterday.  Heaps of road works had closed part of the Western Ring Road this weekend, so I was sneaking around the whole mess by taking the back way thought Mickleham.

I like driving this back way, as its quiet and devoid of fuckwits.  Usually.

Anyway, as I’m driving along, I see this vehicle coming toward me, flicking his lights.  My initial thought: there’s an unmarked police car on the side of the road up ahead, fishing for speeders.  No worries.  Thanks for letting me know, mate.

As I get closer though, I realise that the vehicle flashing me is some beat-up old red-neck lookin’ ute, and he’s stationery in the middle of his lane.  My heart skips a beat for a moment.

What the fuck was going on?

Then I saw it, and threw out the anchors myself.

There, waddling across the middle of the road, was a Mamma duck, with six little ducklings all waddling along in a row behind her. 

I couldn’t believe it. 

This beat-up old ute was stopped, waiting for these completely insignificant little ducks to cross the road, flicking his lights at me so I would see the hazard and hopefully stop too.

I had to smile.  Here were two perfect strangers from different walks of life, stopped on a back road in urban Victoria, waiting for ducks to cross a road.

There were no another cars in sight.  No one else on the planet knew this was happening; just us.  Time stood still for a few moments.  It was amazing.

The dude in the ute had his driver window down, and was just leaning back in his seat, smiling, elbow leaning on the open window frame, watching the ducks cross.  He was in no hurry.

When they reached the other side of the road, and disappeared into the long grass, we started off again, and he gave me a casual wave as we passed.

Back to our lives we went.

It’s funny, you know.  Sometimes, things just don’t seem all that important when you’re watching ducks cross a road.

Peace out.