A boy and his Puddleduck

One day, back in Indiana, Douglas and Edmund were walking around our apartment complex and stopped to befriend an older single lady. When Edmund admired her cheap plastic garden duck, she presented it to him as a gift. I confess I rolled my eyes when they brought it back. In my (well-intentioned, but perhaps over-zealous) drive to keep our lives free of clutter and junk, I thought it would end up in the dumpster in a few days.

However, I was proved wrong when Edmund really enjoyed playing with Jemima, as we call her. He treated her almost like a doll -- feeding her, putting her to bed, and meting out discipline.

Since our move, she's been residing in a box. During a recent retrieval trip to our storage unit, I came across Jemima and rescued her. She now happily resides in the herb garden.