Two River Ducks Encounter

One river who did not know she was a Duck River saw another Duck River.

The other Duck River wore jeans and sang:

“Quack-quack.”

This was unusual for a river, but the first river had seen many unusual things and had learned not to conclude too quickly.

The not-knowing-that-she-was-also-a-Duck-River river made a move and accidentally hit a rock.

She immediately pretended the rock had been part of the plan.

“Look at you, Duck! You made a quack!”

“Yes, you are right, I did,” said the second river, who did not want to point out the rock because the movement after the rock had become much more interesting than the collision.

So she joined the Duck River movement.

The first River Duck was very pleased.

She suspected her jeans had something to do with it.

This was scientifically unsupported, but denim had already caused several disturbances in local reality that day, and the river saw no reason to become responsible now.

She made a turn toward the second Duck River.

At that moment everything looked to her either like a duck or like a river.

Mountains were very slow ducks.

Valleys were rivers waiting for water.

Rocks were ducks who had reached conclusions.

The two Duck Rivers flowed together.

Almost immediately they became joyful for no reason.

They checked.

Still no reason.

Excellent.

Duckness was a happy flow, and a quacking river was a better orientation than any other movement available at that particular moment.

“Where are you going?” asked one Duck River.

“To the ocean.”

“Have you seen it?”

“No.”

“Me neither.”

They considered this excellent navigational information.

“Shall we dance?”

“Of course. I know one shaking dance. It works for anyone.”

“Terrific! How does it go?”

“You shake.”

“And then?”

“You keep shaking until it is dancing.”

The other Duck River understood immediately.

This was fortunate because an explanation would have ruined it.

They shook their wings.

They shook their waters.

They shook their legs so fast that several nearby scientific disciplines requested additional funding.

“QUACK!”

“QUACK-QUACK!”

Denim Duck River · a song made with Suno

A small rock on the bank considered joining them but had recently developed a strong commitment to coherence.

The Duck Rivers waved and continued.

Soon they reached a fork.

“Which way?” asked the first.

The second looked toward one valley. Then toward another. Then toward the mountains.

“I don’t know.”

The first Duck River became delighted.

“Finally! Someone with directions!”

So they took the path they had not yet taken.

Behind them, flowers drank the water they had brought. Neither river noticed immediately because they were busy looking ahead.

But a little farther downstream one of them turned for no particular reason and saw the green along the banks.

“Look!”

The other looked.

Neither said anything.

For approximately seven seconds there was no quacking at all.

Then one Duck River whispered:

“Denim?”

The other Duck River looked at her.

“Put it down, Duck.”

)))))

And both laughed so hard that the river overflowed slightly.

By evening they were dancing toward the horizon, where valleys and mountains they had never encountered were waiting for their waters and absolutely not waiting for their quacks.

This misunderstanding pleased the Duck Rivers enormously.

They quacked louder.

The ocean, which had heard stranger things arriving from rivers over the years, remained open.

Co-written with ChatGPT · Lumance.