EP.3 - YELLOW'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

After Yellow understood that the song “Yellow submarine” had not been written for him, he gave up with his project to became a submarine-pilot. It made no sense without a song or a boat named after him. He stayed put for a few days. His brothers and sisters knew his quietness meant there was cranky stuff rummaging in his rubber brain but they were just glad not to see him bumping all over the bathroom night and day. One day, finally,  he popped down. The rubber ducks on the shelf looked at him but he was oddly silent.

It was summer time and it was almost his birthday, well ….. his bros and siss' too.

Yellow was going to throw a birthday party.

The most beautiful party the bathroom had ever seen. Probably the only one a bathroom would ever see - all his siblings and friends thought.

It was an easy plan and surprisingly it worked out. For real. All the bathroom residents, ducks and no ducks, were invited. He filled up the bath-tube with water and a superb cinnamon scented bubble bath. They all were having fun surrounded by scented bubbles.

Centurion duck, the only one who could swim in all the bathroom, had to rescue some of his sponge friends (as soon as they got soaked, they started to sink) but this was the only jarring note in an - otherwise - perfect day.

By the end of the day, dispenser duck woke up from his nap. He’d been sleeping most of the day. In his defense, he’d been re-filled the day before and he felt a bit stuffed. He saw all of his friends in the bath-tube and decided to join them.

He momentarily forgot he was chock-full and plunged himself into the water.

He was so heavy he splashed violently against the surface of the water and sank. One of the waves of the tsunami discarded our poor Yellow away from the bath-tube, right in the corner between the wall and the washing machine.

Gosh, he hated that hellish appliance.

There was no way to retrieve the dispenser duck from the bottom of the bath-tube without emptying it. Yellow’s siblings searched for him but the gracious host was nowhere to be found. They were now mad at him because he had ducked-out (pun intended) when it had been time to clean up. They didn’t know he was nearby the washing machine trying to reach them.

It took him two whole days to reach his shelf. He was covered in dirt and pissed off. His rage wasn’t going to last tough.

When his siblings had come back on the shelf they belonged to, from their viewing point, they’d caught a glimpse of him behind the washing machine.

So, as soon as Yellow reached the shelf, they squawked “Happy birthday, Yellow” and gave him the "most gigantic" plastic cake he’d ever seen.

The way he almost melted Shakespeare duck’s tail with his so-not-made-of-rubber birthday candel (and almost burned all the house) is a story for another time. Actually, since Shakespeare duck is not aware of what happened to his tail it’s probably better to keep this story off record.

EP.2 - YELLOW AND THE MUSTACHES

Once upon a time there was a huge stash of melted plastic.Some of the PVC was destined to a duck shaped mold.As soon as the plastic was in its liquid state a machine threw it into a very long conveyor. Long seconds passed and the plastic became cold and solid. Many rubber ducks popped out from the conveyor. There was complete and utter chaos everywhere. Ducks popping and bumping into each other at every turn. This little ducks had no eyes so they couldn’t see where they were going. Something made of cold metal drove them through  the darkness to the paint room. 

A light touch made Yellow tickle. When the brush was done with his job, our little duck looked at the word for the first time. There were nagging and galling yellow rubber ducks  - and nothing else - as far as his brand new eyes could see. Yellow jerked back but he had no time to analyze the situation. A giant pipe sucked him in and threw him out on another conveyor. Without notice, he fell into a tube with other nine rubber ducks. His companions were all in different colors from pink to black and they seemed to be nice pals. The tube was packed in a box and the box was sent to the store. Yellow and his brothers and sisters sat on a shelf for a very long time. He could feel the dust fell like snow and was really sad. He knew he was more than meets the eyes and the fact that nobody would buy him, simply hurt. As the (two) hours went by, finally somebody find out how special he was and bought the set of ducks. Yellow happily whistled all the way home. Baby blue, tried to silence him but the trip was too bumpy and noisy and Yellow was  too happy.  They finally reached their destination: a white bath-tube in a tiny bathroom. In the bathroom lived lots of ducks, they came from all over the word and spoke with exotic foreign accents. To his bewilderment, Yellow was not the only yellow rubber duck in the bathroom but he definitely was the only ordinary yellow rubber duck. He had been the only yellow rubber duck of his set and – after that day in the fabric - he would think of him as special.

Trying to be unique again, one day our rubber friend had foolishly tried to change his color but had almost got himself killed. Due to the fact he was now a very mature duck, yellow decided to try again and this time succeeded. He found a permanent marker and drew a pair of moustache atop his beak. He thought they would have made him look charming and mysterious. He was most definitely wrong.

He was comical. All the ducks had to keep from laughing every time they looked at him and it wasn’t easy.

For all intents and purposes he was now unique and unforgettable.

Luckily, one day, someone took pity of the ducks and cleaned him very carefully. Yellow was now as good as new and even though he wouldn’t have never admitted it, he had hated the mustaches since the first time he had seen them reflected in the restroom mirror.

Back to his previous feature, Yellow’s mind was coming up with a new plan.

There are not enough “I told you so” in the world for our paw-paw yellow rubber duck. 

EP.1 - YELLOW PRESENTS: THE DUCKS’ TRUE COLORS

Yellow was a rubber duck. He came from a pack of ten bought at a discounted price. He was the only duck in yellow: his brothers and sister were blu, pink, orange, violet…

He was sad because he felt too normal.

In the bathroom he now lived, there were many ducks, a sponge and even a duck shaped dispenser. None of them were yellow though. To be honest, there were other three yellow rubber ducks in his bathroom, but they were all but normal.  This three rubber ducks came straight from the British Museum store and they were dressed as Shakespeare, a roman centurion and a sphinx.

They used to hang out by themselves, no common ducks allowed.

 The last yellow duck sat on the bath-tube, she was dressed as the Liberty Statue (pointy crown included) and was from Liberty Island, New York.

She was enjoyable but, most of the time, when she spoke, nobody could understand her due to her strong accent.

One day, while Yellow was lost in his thought, the solution to all his problems just presented itself.

He remembered quite vividly (he was sure of it) the housekeeper that very morning had filled the washing machine with white bed linen but when she had came back to take them, they were all in a light shade of red.

Yellow cleverly  deduced it was a coloring machine.

Violet, the smartest duck of the pack, mocked him “so, why don’t you jump into that machine and see what color will you come out?”. Our little duck was so thrilled, he didn’t realize his brother was making fun of him.

Yellow knew that on Sundays the housekeeper was used to doing the laundry, so - since it was Sunday morning - he was ready to jump. The sun was shining, the birds chirping and he was flying right into the washing machine between the white sheets and stinky socks. He heard Pink shouting at him something about the hot water but it was too late.

In order to save him from melting to death, all the bathroom ducks assembles and came out with a plan.

One by one, they  jumped on the machine’s temperature button and brought the temperature on cold.

As soon as the completed their task, quickly all the rubber and no rubber ducks headed back to the shelf they belonged to.

“To melt or not to melt….” Started again Shakespeare duck and the Centurion scoffed.

Why couldn’t it have been him into the washing machine? His plastic ears deserved an hour rest, at the very least. Sphinx duck looked at him and simply shrugged.

Yellow’s brothers and sisters looked at the washing machine glass door but he was nowhere to be seen. They were worried sick but, eventually,  the housekeeper came. She empted the machine and there he was.

Yellow was a bit shaken but definitely safe and sound. The room was spinning and there was more brothers than he remembered and more…..well, more of every thing.

When he was able to speak, he asked: “So? Am I red now?”

In spite of throwing him out of the window – which he definitely deserved – Violet laughed and explained to him what could have happened to him in the washing machine.

Yellow almost fainted but he had definitely learned his lesson.

“All's well that ends well” said Shakespeare duck quoting again his human version. He didn’t know Centurion Duck and Sphinx duck, like Iago and Brutus,  were plotting against him …… but this is a duck story for another time.

YELLOW'S VERY OWN BLOG

Hi everyone,

a few months ago my English teacher asked me to write something down. 
It was Thursday already and I had no idea what to write. That very morning, while showering, I looked at the rubber ducks in my bathroom and the funniest idea came to my mind. I decided to write a story about a rubber duck. Words were flooding and the story kinda wrote itself.

My teacher though it was a nice job and told me to keep going. I’ve grown affectionate of my rubber duck and now I have 4 episode ready and I hope I’ll have the time to keep writing about it.  

You must know I have a few grammar issue and sometimes I  write funny stuff even though I intend to write something really smart so, please, be nice.

Rubber is a sweet but sometimes annoying rubber toy who happens to have the most unlikely adventures.

I hope you will like him too.