Out of the Shell

It was a warm day in summer. A mother duck sat on her nest near a big pond. Under her body, there were seven eggs. She had been sitting on them for many days. She was tired and hot, but she did not move. She loved her eggs very much. "I hope they come out soon," she said quietly. An old duck nearby said, "You have been sitting there too long. Your legs must hurt."

One morning, the eggs began to break open. Small yellow ducklings came out one by one. They were soft and round, and they were very cute. "How lovely!" said the mother duck. She counted: one, two, three, four, five, six. Then she looked at the last egg. It was much bigger than the others, and it had not broken open yet. "That is a strange egg," said the old duck. "I will wait a little longer," said the mother duck. She sat down again.

At last, the big egg broke open too. Out came a duckling. But this one looked very different from the rest. It was much bigger than its brothers and sisters. Its feathers were gray and dark, not soft and yellow. Its neck was long and its feet were wide. The mother duck looked at it carefully. "Well," she said slowly, "you are really a big one. Let us all go to the pond. We will see if you can swim. That is the most important thing for a duck."

The mother duck led all her ducklings to the edge of the pond. She jumped in first, and the little yellow ducklings jumped in after her. Even the big gray one jumped in. It swam well! It moved its wide feet and kept its head up above the water. It did not sink. The mother duck felt a little better. "Good," she said. "You can swim just as well as the others. That shows you are a real duck, even if you look different."

But when the mother duck brought all her babies to the farm yard, the other animals came to look. A fat hen walked up and said, "What is that? It is too big and too ugly! It does not look like a duck at all." A rooster came and looked at the gray duckling. "It is wrong! It does not belong here!" The other little ducklings started to laugh. "Ugly duckling! Ugly duckling!" they called. The big gray duckling stood still and said nothing, but inside, it felt a deep pain.

Even the mother duck began to feel unhappy. "I do not understand you," she said one day. "Why do you look so different? The other ducklings are so pretty and small. You are so big and gray." The duckling stood very still and looked at its wide feet. It said nothing. It felt alone even when its family was all around it. The other ducklings did not want to play with it. They pushed it away from the food and bit its back and sides. The duckling did not fight back.

Day after day, the duckling was treated badly. The other ducks bit it and kicked it. The hens called it ugly and strange. Even the farmer's wife saw it one day and said, "That big ugly thing should go." The farm dog walked up to look and then walked away without a sound, as if the duckling was not worth its attention. The duckling tried to be kind to everyone, but no one was kind back. It felt as if the whole world had decided it did not belong here.

One evening, the duckling sat alone at the edge of the pond and looked at its face in the still water. It could see a big gray bird with a long neck and rough dark feathers. It was not round and yellow and soft like the other ducklings. It was something else. Something strange and wrong. "Why am I so different?" the duckling thought. "Why does everyone call me ugly? Why does no one want to be near me?" The water was still and cold. The duckling had no answer.

One morning before the sun came up, the duckling made up its mind. It could not stay at the farm any longer. The pain was too great. Quietly, while everyone else was still asleep, it walked to the edge of the farm yard. It opened its wings, ran across the grass, and flew up into the air. It had never flown before, but its wings were strong and wide. It flew over the trees and the green fields. It did not look back. It did not know where it was going, but it had to go.

The duckling flew for a long time. At last, it landed near a wide, quiet lake. The water was still and clear. No one was around. It walked into the water slowly and felt the cool water around its feet and legs. The lake was peaceful. It swam in circles, looking at the sky and the trees. For the first time in many days, no one was calling it ugly. No one was laughing. It was alone, but it was not being hurt. That felt like a gift.

The duckling found food in the water and ate quietly. It rested under some tall grass near the edge of the lake. As the days passed, it learned to live on its own. But it was a sad kind of life. Every morning it woke up with no one to talk to. Every evening it sat at the edge of the water and thought about why it was different. It hoped that somewhere there was a place where it could belong. But it did not know where that place was. The lake was quiet. The sky was wide. And the duckling was very, very small.

One afternoon, some wild ducks flew down and landed on the lake. The duckling swam toward them, hoping to make friends. But the wild ducks looked at it carefully and then looked away. "You are not like us," said one. "What kind of bird are you?" another asked. The duckling did not know what to say. It did not know what kind of bird it was. The wild ducks swam away without another word. The duckling watched them go. It was still alone. And summer was almost over.

As the days passed, the leaves on the trees began to change color. The air grew cool. One evening, the duckling looked up at the sky and saw a group of large white birds flying in a long line. They were flying south. The duckling had never seen birds so beautiful. Their wings were wide and bright, and their long necks moved in the air. The duckling watched them until they were gone from sight. It felt something strange in its chest. Not pain. Something more like a wish. A wish to be near those beautiful birds.

"What were those?" the duckling thought. It could not stop thinking about the beautiful white birds. It turned back to the lake and swam alone as the sky grew dark. The air was cold now, and winter was coming. The duckling knew it had to find somewhere warm to stay. It had no home and no friends. The edge of the water was turning cold and hard. But the duckling had to keep going. It had nowhere to go, and yet it had to go somewhere. So it kept swimming. Alone.