Ducks, Newburyport

by Lucy Ellmann

a Ronny mound, and his protests and groans were less noticeable too, the fact that I felt like kicking him, I really did, but in some ways Ronny just seemed irrelevant by then, the fact that we’d beaten a guy with a gun, Mishipeshu, Mishawaka, the fact that if it wasn’t for Stacy though, and her self-defense tactics, it might have been a different story, the fact that maybe this is why you give birth, so that with any luck someone in your family will be handy in an emergency, like if it ever turns out your chicken-feed deliveryman’s a total nutjob, fruitcake, a person of inadequate sanity, and a danger to life and limb, the fact that all four of my kids turn out to be great in an emergency, actually, it’s just that I’m not, the fact that they all instinctively did the right thing, the fact that it’s like Powell’s attack on Seward, except that almost all the Sewards were hurt, and none of us were, Davina Beebee, the fact that the Sewards all survived, apart from Mrs. Seward, who died later from the shock of it all, poor thing, the fact that maybe she felt like I feel, the fact that maybe she froze too, the fact that anyway my kids are stars, quatre étoiles, Michelin Man, the fact that I could get really boastful about them if I don’t watch out, especially Stace, the fact that without her I’m not sure we’d still be here, the fact that that little kid of mine, Stacy at six, dear me, that grumpy little moaning Silent Treatment kid saved our lives,