Blossoming Bouquet

Once upon a time, Mother Duck sat on five beautiful eggs waiting for them to hatch. It was not her first time to have ducklings so she was not nervous or anything. But she was still excited. After many days and hours of keeping her eggs warm the little ducklings started to hatch. Mother Duck greeted her little ones with open wings and named them one by one. The very last egg to hatch was that of Jasmine the little duckling.

Mother Duck was quite proud to have her new ducklings. She knew that from now until they got a bit older they would look to her for all their needs. But once they began swimming on their own her job would be nearly complete.

After a while in their comfortable nest they were all ready to go out to the pond and swim. They formed a duck line and marched on towards the pond. Mother Duck at the head of the line gracefully entered the water and one duckling at a time followed her. Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop!

Jasmine, the little duckling was at the end of the line. When she saw the water she stopped and refused to go in.

Mother Duck said to her precious one, "Swim! Swim!"

But Jasmine refused, no way.

Mother Duck even tried to encourage her by counting: “One! Two! Three! Swim!”

Getting a bit frustrated with her duckling, yet still patient she said; "On your mark, get set, swim." Jasmine still refused to get into the water.

The next day, Mother Duck signaled her ducklings to form a line to head for the pond. This time she assigned Rosie the eldest of the five to be at the head of the line. One by one they marched. Mother Duck noticed that there were only four ducklings in the line. She knew of course that it could only be Jasmine who was missing.

She called out, "Jasmine! Jasmine! Where are you?"

There was no answer. Mother Duck searched the nest until she found Jasmine hiding underneath some straw waiting for them to leave. Mother Duck guided her little one to the line and marched behind her towards the pond.
One by one the little bouquet of ducks gracefully entered the pond. Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop!

They swam today a bit better then yesterday. Mother Duck spoke to Jasmine with encouraging words hoping to warm her up to wetting her webbed feet. Yet Jasmine still did not want to go into in the pond.

Jasmine said, "If you allow me not to swim today, I promise I will swim tomorrow."

Mother Duck looked lovingly at her little duckling and agreed. She asked her little one to stay put so she could watch her as she swam with her other ducklings. Jasmine agreed and sat down at the foot of the pond. She noticed a frog sitting on a rock. She went to him. When she got close the frog jumped. Splash! Wetting Jasmine's dry feathers!

Jasmine was mad. "Yuk! Yuk! Yuk! She quacked."

She admired how the other little ducklings glided on the water. Jasmine let out a great big sigh and said, "That's fine for them, but not for me."
She knew she was not afraid of the water; she just did not want to get wet.

Jasmine watched Tulip, Violet and Daisy, the middle ducklings enjoying themselves splashing around in the pond.

"Oh! No!" She thought "tomorrow I must go in. After all, I did promise mother."

Jasmine knew there was no room for changing her mind.

Jasmine was enjoying the warm sunshine. She looked up and saw some beautiful, colorful butterflies flying around. She thought, how wonderful it would be to just glide around in the dry warm air. Jasmine opened her wings and pretended to glide through the air keeping her eyes on the beautiful butterflies flying above her. This was more to her liking instead of flapping around in a wet pond all day.

Suddenly, Jasmine remembered her mother telling her to stay put. She stopped suddenly in her tracks. Looking around, she noticed the pond was no longer in sight. Her adopted family of butterflies was gone too. What to do? Jasmine thought. She tried to get back to the pond and realized she was only going around in circles. After a while, she wished she was wet flapping around with Rosie, Daisy, Tulip, and Violet.

Meanwhile, Mother Duck realizing that Jasmine was missing took her other little ducklings back to the nest. She went searching for her dry little duckling.

“Jasmine! Jasmine!” She shouted, hoping to find her little one.

Jasmine had fallen asleep. But she soon awoke to the sound of her mother’s voice calling her. Instantly, Jasmine knew that she was the only mother and wet family she wanted and that swimming was for her.

The next day Jasmine was at the head of the line ready to lead Rosie, Tulip, Daisy and Violet to the pond.

"Hut, two, three, four” she said.

They marched as if they were an army of ducks on a mission. Finally, at the foot of the pond Jasmine remembered her dislike for getting wet. She felt a lump in her throat, umm! She swallowed it. All the ducks awaited her graceful entry into the water. But she stopped dead in her tracks. Mother Duck said some encouraging words, but still she was not ready to go in the water.

The other ducklings at the request of their mother went around Jasmine and entered the water. Mother Duck looked at Jasmine with a questioning look. Jasmine had seen that look before. She knew today she must put it to rest. She took a deep breath and asked her mother to stay put. Mother Duck, after several attempts to get her to jump granted this request. But she insisted that Jasmine stay put and not move a feather too. Jasmine was all too willing.

As she sat there she saw the frog sitting on the rock. Suddenly it jumped up and into the water. What a beautiful warm day it is she thought. Jasmine looked up and saw the butterflies gliding through the air fluttering around. She realized it was time. She let out a great big sigh and jumped in with a great big Splash!

By Houda Alkalla