Wolf Steps on Duck

Wolf and Duck both move in with a group of animals known for their wonderful potluck parties.

Once there was a group of forest animals that lived together, played together and worked together. They were all as different as can be. There was a squirrel that never said much, a frog that always had something interesting to say and a bear that was a sweet, gentle bear that spoke very quietly. There was a stork that took forever to make decisions, a raccoon that seemed to know everything that was going on in the forest and a lizard that always thought she had done something wrong.

This group had some notoriety in the forest as having the best potlucks in the area. People visited all the time, and were welcomed. Some visitors came and stayed, other visitors weren’t sure their casseroles could measure up, although no one in the group ever thought that. They were grateful to have the visitors.

One day, a wolf came to visit, wanting to become part of the group. He was nice enough, and everyone seemed to think he would make a good addition to the group. The wolf was intelligent, spoke very quickly and always seemed in a hurry. He brought a really tasty casserole.

Around the same time, there was a duck that wanted to move into the area as well. He visited the group a few times and asked many questions. Mostly about if it would be OK with the group if he moved into the area. He brought a salad once, and chips and cookies another time. Easy stuff, but totally appreciated by the group.

The group appreciated his sweetness and thoughtfulness and really began to want to know him better.

After much deliberation, Duck decided to move in with the group. He put his home on the market and started getting things squared away.

See, Wolf and Duck lived next door to each other, and when Wolf found out that Duck was moving, Wolf packed up immediately and bought a really expensive house in the vicinity of the group, without selling his home next to Duck’s. (It took him months to sell that house, even after a paint job, new carpet and even lowering the price).

A couple months later, Duck sold his home and bought one in the new area. Things went very smoothly, except for the last minute termite inspection. He loved his new home. There was plenty of space, a quiet neighborhood and he was able to make a good down payment from the sale of the old house.

Every week (sometimes twice a week), the group would have a potluck dinner, and everyone that could come, would bring their favorite dish. They would sing songs, talk about what was going on, laugh, cry and set up times during the week where they could get their families together.

The group knew that Duck and Wolf were friends, but something had happened. No one was really sure what exactly, but they all noticed that Wolf and Duck didn’t ever hang out.

One day, at a potluck dinner, Wolf stood up and said something to Duck in front of the group.

“Duck,” he said. “I have to tell you, I was not happy that you were coming here to live.”

Duck was taken by surprise. Everyone was.

“Please forgive me for not wanting to be your friend anymore.” He added.

“Oh,” Duck said as he furrowed his brow. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

Wolf moved toward Duck with outstretched arms, so Duck felt obligated to stand up and hug Wolf, although he was still processing what Wolf had said. Duck was for sure willing to forgive Wolf, but this was huge. Duck didn’t want to take it lightly.

Well, the rest of the evening, everyone thought it had all been resolved. Everyone that is, except for Duck. Duck was confused.

At the first opportunity he saw, Duck asked Wolf if he would come over behind the reeds and talk with him.

“Wolf,” Duck asked. “What were you talking about back there?”

“Well,” said Wolf, “You hurt my feelings, and I didn’t want to be your friend anymore.”

“Wolf,” stammered Duck. “I’m sorry for hurting you, I had no idea. You never let on that you were upset. I wish I had known.”

“You couldn’t tell?” asked Wolf. “You said you were my friend and then never wanted to come to potlucks at my house. You said we were buddies, but you never took my advice on what spices to put in your casseroles. You said we were like brothers, but you didn’t even try to change your recipe when I told you what you needed to change. You lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie to you, Wolf,” Duck said. “I listened to you. I changed. I took your advice.”

“No you didn’t,” said Wolf. “I told you that your casseroles would not be eaten here, and yet, here you are, casserole in hand.”

“I did listen to you, Wolf,” Duck said. “But your advice made casseroles I didn’t like. No one wanted to eat my casseroles anymore.”

“That’s silly,” scoffed Wolf. “You don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I do,” whispered Duck. “No one invited us to potlucks anymore.”

“Well, you don’t need to be hanging around anyone who won’t eat your casserole anyway,” said Wolf.

Duck was speechless. He couldn’t believe Wolf was saying things like that.

“I was under the impression,” said Wolf, “that when I came to live next door to you, you wanted me to point out things I thought were not “good” about your casseroles.”

“Well,” stammered Duck. “I would have welcomed it, but you told me these things in such a way as to make me believe that I was a horrible, foolish and amateur cook.”

“Well,” said Wolf, “you were the one who agreed to have me move in next door.”

“Wolf!” exclaimed Duck. “That was before you tried to change my cooking style.”

“What?” stomped Wolf. “I haven’t changed.”

“That’s not true,” said Duck. “When we first met, you were on your best behavior. You said all the right things, you were nice, funny and I felt you had a lot to teach me about cooking. You said you liked my cooking. But then when you moved in, it’s like something switched on. Or off. I don’t know which.”

“No,” said Wolf. “You’re the one that changed. You baited me by making me think that you were open to be taught, and then when I got there, you suddenly stopped wanting to even talk about food with me.”

“Wolf,” said Duck. “Don’t you get it? Immediately after you moved in, you changed. From that day on, you always had something to tell me about how I was frying or what spices I was using or how long to cook something in the slow cooker. You always had something bad to say about the casseroles my friends and family brought over. You had bad things to say about the food our neighbors brought over as well. Well, the ones that you tasted anyway. You even had something bad to say about the food at the restaurant and grocery store. When you left, our neighbors, friends and family all came to us and told us that they thought of you as a Big Bad Wolf. They all thought you looked down on them, like you were better than them.”

“Well,” said Wolf. “I’m not going to say anything about that.”

“Wolf,” said Duck, “what are you saying?”

“Look,” demanded Wolf. “Here’s the deal. I will not be a part of this group if you are.”

“Wolf, wait a minute. What are you saying?” said Duck. “This group is a good group. There’s no need to be crazy. They don’t need to know anything about what happened. You can use this time to try to stop being mean to everyone you meet and just eat their casseroles.”

“Oh,” said Wolf. “I see. I can’t suggest something that might be helpful to your cooking, but you can throw these sharp forks at me and hit me with these rolling pins of hurtful things.”

A tear rolled down Duck’s cheek.

“Either you leave, or I will,” said Wolf.

“Why are you saying this?” asked Duck.

“I can not be a friend with anyone who eats your food,” said Wolf.

Duck went home without saying goodbye to anyone.

When he got home, he went straight to sleep.

The next week, Frog invited everyone to come over for a potluck, but Duck did not show up.

Then Squirrel had one, then Stork, each inviting everyone in the group. Even Wolf had one (although he specifically didn’t invite Duck).

Well, some of the animals in the group noticed that Duck wasn’t showing up lately and a couple of them decided to go to his house.

Bear was first to speak up.

“Duck,” he said. “Are you OK?”

Raccoon was next.

“Something happened between you and Wolf, didn’t it?” he said.

“Did I do something to offend you?” asked Lizard.

Then Frog chimed in.

“Wolf is threatened by you,” she said.

Duck wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

“Something happened with you two before you came here, and it’s hurt you deeply, but you are trying to let him start out fresh here with us by not mentioning anything about what happened,” said Frog.

Duck just nodded.

Frog added, “Wolf is afraid you might expose him for who he really is.”

Duck said, “He’s not a Big Bad Wolf.”

Frog assured him, “Don’t you think we can tell?”

Duck sat up.

”What do you mean?” Duck asked.

“Pretty soon after we met him we knew that he was going to be a challenge,” said Raccoon.

“But we weren’t going to turn him away,” said Frog. “All he needed to know is that we love him, and we enjoy his cooking.”

“That’s all anyone needs,” said Raccoon.

“We thought, like you, that we’d give him an opportunity to have a clean start here with us,” said Bear. “Everyone needs to have a clean start.”

“Even you,” said Squirrel.

Duck was amazed at the insight this group had, and that they all cared so much about Wolf.

Duck was happy. He felt like they really loved him. They all decided that they would let things cool down for a while.

One day, Wolf had another potluck at his place, and when everyone was there, he stood up and began to speak.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Wolf. “There’s so much potential here in this group. We could really make this group such a great group.”

“What do you mean?” asked Frog. “We’re doing fine.”

“Well,” said Wolf. “I was thinking that you, Frog, for example, I think you shouldn’t use so much cumin. And you, Raccoon, I think you would benefit the group so much if you would just stay away from dill, you use it on everything, and frankly, I think I speak for the group here, I’m kind of sick of it. Bear, you need to use cheddar, not parmesan. And I’m not dogmatic about this, but I think you should all use my recipes from now on. You’ll find they are much better.”

He went on, not leaving anyone out of his spiky, cold and uncomfortable opinions.

Needless to say, the potluck finished a bit early.

Wolf, of course, thought it had gone very well.

Duck heard about this the next day (since he wasn’t invited to this one either) and felt sad that Wolf was doing it again.

He decided to go to Wolf to try to let him know that he was actually hurting the members of the group by telling them all those crazy things.

Wow, Wolf freaked out.

“What have you been telling them about me!” Wolf yelled.

“Wolf, I haven’t said anything,” Duck responded. “I’m just here to tell you that if you treat the people in this group like you treated me before we moved, it’s not going to be good.”

“What do you know?” Wolf said. “I can’t believe you came here to my house to tell me these hurtful things.”

Duck was speechless.

“You know, I know about some hygiene techniques you use that will make them not want to eat your food,” said Wolf as seriously as he could.

“Like what, Wolf?” wondered Duck.

“I won’t bring them up now. I don’t want to get into that right now. Stop changing the subject. This is about you coming and saying hurtful things to me,” said Wolf.

“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way, Wolf. I would be more than happy to hear what you are talking about if you ever want to tell me,” said Duck. “And feel free to tell the others what you know about me. I’m not hiding anything.”

Wolf just sat quiet. He was shaking because he was so upset.

“I’ll go ahead and go, Wolf,” said Duck. “I’m sorry I made you so upset.”

Wolf said nothing.

Duck went home and went straight to bed.

The very next weekend, Wolf invited everyone (except for Duck) to a potluck.

No one showed up. Well, Stork showed up.

When they had finished eating, Wolf was so upset about no one coming, he began to tell Stork his opinion of all the culinary mistakes the animals in the group were making.

Stork began to cry.

“These are my friends you are talking about, Wolf,” Stork said. “If you have something to say about someone’s cooking, say it to them. It is not nice of you to talk about their food like this.”

Wolf never went and spoke to anyone individually about what he thought.

A few weeks later, Wolf let everyone know that he was “way too busy to cook anymore” and “I might be moving away.”

Duck was upset to hear this. He thought Wolf would have taken advantage of this new start, but it looked like Wolf was still the same Wolf, and he wasn’t about to change.

Wolf didn’t move away for a long time, and Duck spoke to him every once in a while. Each time they spoke, it was nice, but Duck could tell Wolf was still upset.

Duck thought of Wolf often, but felt like he needed to give Wolf the space Wolf said he wanted.

Wolf put a big fence around his home and stopped answering the door when anyone knocked.

Duck became very good friends with many of the others in the group, and was very happy in his new home. He even visited his old home and friends and family as often as he could, and tried to patch things up there by catering some of their parties. With his own recipes, of course.

Duck never felt good about not seeing Wolf anymore. He had learned quite a bit from him and through him and because of him and even in spite of him. He was truly grateful things had happened how they had, however bad they seemed on the surface.

Duck was a better cook for it.

The End

Well, thankfully, not quite.

As you already may know, Wolf built a fence around his house and stopped answering the door.

Well, that went on for some time.

Duck and the rest of the gang were having potlucks and getting together and singing songs almost twice a week. Someone attempted to invite Wolf every time they got together, but he didn’t ever answer the door.

One day, unbeknownst to anyone, Wolf came to one of the potlucks. It was good to see him. He looked well. And what was most amazing was that he did not bring his usual fare of interesting and tasty casseroles. No, he brought a bag of chips and some store-bought cookies.

Everyone was amazed by this strange action. They were amazed because this is not what they would have expected from Wolf.

In the past, Wolf would have entered in a way to make everyone notice. Well, I guess that happened this time too, didn’t it. Well, what I mean is, he would have come in making sure that everyone could smell his casserole, but not see it. He would name it something so intriguing that everyone would be chomping at the bit just to get a look at it.

Then he would make sure to place it on the table among the rest of the dishes so as to somehow make it stand out in the crowd and make everyone else’s look like a pile of garbage. Sometimes draping it with a white sheet, and sometimes setting it on risers or tiers.

His serving utensils were always sparkling and even his hot pads were hand stitched and gorgeous.

Not this time. He set the cookies and chips down quietly in the corner of the table behind the napkins and paper plates.

Then he walked right over to Duck.

“Duck,” said Wolf. “I am so sorry for making you feel bad. I’ve really been thinking a lot about how I treat other animals and I know I’ve caused quite a bit of hurt.”

“Oh, Wolf,” said Duck. “It’s so good to see you again. Listen, I forgive you.”

“We all forgive you,” said Raccoon.

Wolf had a tear in his eye. All the animals came closer to hug him. Wolf started to cry, which is something he hadn’t done in forever.

The hug seemed to last a really long time, but just before it got uncomfortable, Duck spoke up.

“I’m hungry,” he said. Everyone agreed.

They started walking toward the table with the food.

“Hey, Duck,” said Wolf. “I’ve thrown out all my recipes, and I won’t be coming up with new ones any time soon. In fact, I’d like to get a copy of your Sour Cream Enchilada recipe, if that would be OK. Just for me to eat at home, not to bring.”

“You would?” asked Duck.

“And Raccoon,” said Wolf. “I would love it if you let me take a look at your Spicy Pasta Salad recipe. It’s so tasty.”

Wolf was different. Maybe it was the time he spent alone. Maybe it was all the doorbells and knocks on the door that came every day. Whatever it was, he was back, and he was a pleasure to be with.

He piled his plate high that day with everyone’s creations and ate every bite, and even had seconds of Frog’s South Beach friendly Shepherd’s Pie made with mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes.

Wolf never offered unsolicited cooking advice again, except when asked, and even then, was so encouraging and polite, that he made everyone feel good about themselves…and their cooking.

The End