Flying Ducks

“Flying ducks, what is this, the zoo?” Margo whispered, her fingers flying across the keyboard of her mobile phone. She was perched carefully on the edge of her desk, back against the wall.

Her business partner furrowed his eyebrows and studied her with interest. Margo didn’t curse but even this was taking it a bit far, he felt. Still, Margo tended to be quiet unless she truly had something to say and so he waited for her to continue, silently guessing what she was thinking. Toby waited and waited and still Margo typed away, not acknowledging him or anything else around her but still she kept whispering, “Flying ducks, flying ducks.”

Finally, unable to handle the suspense or the growing strangeness of the situation, Toby sighed, exasperated, “Flying what? Margo, for the love of – “.

Startled, Margo’s head whipped up, “What in the great green Gob’s name are you talking about Toby?”

A pounding was beginning behind his eyes and he knew without a doubt that a migraine was brewing. He really didn’t have time to deal with that at the moment and yet, Margo was his business partner and best friend. She had been since they were neighbors growing up side-by-side brick homes on either side of a white picket fence. It was laying on either side of that fence they’d dreamed up their wild dream of owning the town’s first and only wedding venue. Now, ten years later, Margo was still his number one go to for everything business related and personal.

Toby ran his hand down his face in frustration. “Margo, you know I love you, but if you don’t stop saying ‘flying ducks’ right this minute, I’m going home on a sick day and we both know we have three weddings set up for this weekend alone, and I don’t have time to be sick.”

Margo’s cheeks colored with a pretty blush, “Ah, Toby, you love me?”

Were those, tears, in her eyes? He wondered, bewilderment taking over, “Of course, you know I do but what in the world is ‘flying duck’?”

“Oh,” Margo smiled, “You’ll never believe this.”

She hopped off of her perch on her desk and thrust her phone into Toby’s face. His eyes struggled to focus on the words in front of him.

“Flying ducks!” He nearly shouted when the words stuttered into focus.

“See!” Margo cackled, “Flying ducks!”

Toby’s head, which had begun to hurt, took to pounding against his forehead. He rubbed his thumbs against his temples and prayed for patience.

Margo wasn’t losing her mind, not even a little bit, which Toby would have honestly preferred at this point. No, she was simply reading an email that they’d received on the business page, M&Tweddings.com. A bride was requesting a consultation, for 3:00 PM, and she already knew the theme: flying ducks. She wanted mallard and pekins and all manner of ducks represented at her wedding. A duck inspired cake, a duck inspired dress, the whole nine yards.

“This has got to rank in the top ten craziest ideas, right?” Toby was baffled. His brain stalled at the very idea of a bride wanting a duck wedding. The image of a beautifully coiffed brunette with a duck bill and wings was nearly impossible to avoid as he tried to wrap his mind around this idea.

Margo struggled to disagree with him. In their ten years in business, she couldn’t seem to come up with another nine instances that held a candle to this current situation. Admittedly, she was worried. Their little town was barely on the map at all; the wedding venue being one of the only notable businesses that drew any tourists to the town. So far, they had rave reviews but Margo knew, all it would take would be one bad review and their business would take a nose-dive. Along with them, the entire town would end up suffering. The weight of that responsibility was hard to ignore and Margo felt it every single day and she knew Toby did too.

“Ducks. . .” Toby whispered. He sounded shocked and befuddled. If the look in his eyes and the way his hands were running through his hair, making the waves stand on end, were any indication, he was feeling about like she was.

Margo hopped back up on top of her desk and leaned back against the wall, notepad in hand as she tapped her pencil against the top page and wracked her brain for ideas that would bring this bride’s dream wedding to fruition. The only things that came to mind were images of Swan Lake and the old Aflac commercials. That wasn’t going to work. Toby typed at his desk and shook his head intermittently as if he couldn’t wrap his head around the words he was writing.

The ‘ding’ of her email notification pulled her from her spinning thoughts, dragging her attention back to her cell-phone. After reading the email she’d just received, Margo started laughing. She started laughing and laughing until she quite literally fell from her perching spot on her desk to the cream rug that softened the hardwood floors of the office. She rolled on her side and gripped her stomach as the muscle in her stomach began to ache from the laughter pouring from her.

Once again, Toby was fairly certain Margo had lost her mind completely. He loved her like a sister but if she didn’t start acting normal again, he didn’t know what he was going to do. He certainly couldn’t run the business by himself and he knew she needed fresh air to spur her creativity.

“Margo Gaffery, I swear if you don’t start making some sense -!” Toby nearly shouted. He wondered how smoke wasn’t already pouring out of his ears. Patience had never been his strongest ability and here Margo was, rolling wildly on the floor, one of her nude pump heels dangling from her perfectly pedicured toes.

Margo tossed her cell-phone up onto Toby’s desk and he grabbed ahold of it like a life preserver.

           Dear Ms. Gaffery and Mr. Jackson,

Please consider this my apology for the previous email you received. I really do not want a ‘flying duck’ wedding! I promise, I’m not crazy! I work for a conservation magazine and was working on putting together a spread with ducks flying across a lake. I guess this is a sign that I am NOT a good multi-tasker, that’s why I’m hiring your venue with full planning services. Please see my TRUE list for my wedding below:

-         Elegance

-         Light and airy

-         Whimsical

Again, I apologize for the wildness of my original email. I hope this doesn’t make you think I’m completely mad.

Sincerely,

                       Beverely Sansen

Toby sighed in relief then choked on laughter as the ridiculous nature of the entire situation broke through. They could do elegance, light and airy, and whimsical without so much as batting an eye, after all, that is the entire brand they had built their business on.

An email came through on Toby’s laptop from the bakery they used for their wedding cakes. Joel Silvers had responded to his email with several question marks and had attached several images of duck cakes and the cutesy yellow frosting sent him into another round of hysterics.

Flying ducks indeed.