The Duckman: A Duckie Dale Fanfiction

Chapter 6

After twenty minutes of driving, eight of which I spent going around the same block, I finally found the farmers market. It was a cute little set up of tents and rusty old pickup trucks holding ripe watermelons and squash in the bed. I drove down the block until I found a decent parking space, then pulled into a place in front of a quaint bakery named The Sifted Flour.
     When I got closer to the tents, I noticed the large crowd of buyers and sellers all around. One of the locals that I found was an older man, probably in his late sixties or early seventies. He was around five and a half feet tall, and wore a pair of faded Levis, and a matching sun faded blue T-shirt with the words Indianapolis Colts '63-'64 in big white letters, and to top it all off a faded American flag baseball cap say on his (what I'm guessing is) grey hair. He asked me if I was new around here, and followed it with,"It's nice to see a new face around here. Usually it's the same old customers, so they almost always know when I'm ripping them off," and from the looks of the man, I'm guessing he's had a long experience of haggling.
"Um, excuse me, sir," I say in a nervous voice,"do you know who here has the best ears of corn? My mother gets very picky over silly things like that, and I figured you'd know since you've been around it for so long." He stands there pondering for a moment over the question, and responds with a firm answer.
"If you go three trucks down to the rusty, old Chevy pick up, you'll find a man named Harold. At least, I think that's his name. We've never really bothered to meet each other and don't plan on it soon."
"Thank you, very much. And I'm sorry, I never caught your name. I'm Samantha, but I go by Sam."
"The names Jack, but you can call me Jack. Ya know, I have a granddaughter around your age who goes to Sherman High School just around the block. You may bump into her while you're there."

"Thank you again for helping me out. I don't think this town will be so bad after all. And I'll be on the look out for her."
Once I got what I needed, I headed on back to the car. I was about to back out of my parking spot when I thought, Ya know, by the time I get home, they would've been done with all that hard work... They could really use a reward. After all, I only have to drive around town with a bag of Okra as my passenger. I put the car into park, took the keys out of the ignition, and grabbed my purse from the passenger seat. When I got out of the car, the smell of Carrot cake and Lemon Squares coming from the bakery. There must have been fifty different deserts that had taken over my senses. After reading their list of items, I walked up to the counter to make my purchase.
"Welcome to the Sifted Flour, what can I get for you?"
"Um," I say as my eyes dance around looking at what all they had to offer,"Can I get half a dozen Chocolate cupcakes, one Carrot cake cupcake, two lemon, two strawberry, and one birthday cake cupcake?"
"Sure thing!" She said with her high-pitched and perky voice. She was a short blonde girl, no older than twenty five, and was as peaceful and soothing as a bunny. She folded over the red cardboard lid of the cupcake box and sat it on top of the display case.
"Your total will be twenty two thirty seven."
After a moment of finding twenty two dollars in cash and hearing the jingle of my thirty seven cents in my wallet, I was headed back to the car.
"Where am I off to next..." I say as I read my list of tasks.
"Now I have to go get milk, eggs, and that refrigerated junk mom always complaining about having to buy."
     Luckily about a block down was a mom-and-pop grocery store named Sherman's Groceries. It took me a few minutes but I was able to get out of there with only having to pay for about thirty dollars worth of refrigerator food and canned goods. When I say back down in the driver's seat, I checked my watch to see what time it was.
"How is it already 12:30? I haven't even had lunch yet!"
     I tried to remember how exactly I even got to this area of town. By the time I got home, another twenty minutes full of confusion and turning the car around had gone by. I was relieved when I found the house I had left this morning to still be in one piece. I pulled into the somewhat clean garage and grabbed all of my grocery bags. When I got into the houses, the peaceful smell of baked goods had left my nose and were taken over by the aroma of paint.
"Mom! Dad! I'm back! Did you miss me?" I say in a playful manner.
"They've gone over to the Wilsons. They've been there for about an hour but I've been watching the house."
"Who the hell," I turned around to find where the strange voice was coming from, and it was our little friend from the pond.
"Duckie, how did you get in here?"
"I came over to see how it was coming along and to be a little neighborly, meet everyone, and I guess I got carried away."
"Well thank you for watching our house, but you can leave now. I hardly even know you and you're practically calling my parents your own mom and dad. Now leave!"
"I don't think I can do that," he says as he walks over to my place in the kitchen,"it would be rude of me to show up, loiter around, then leave without showing any gratitude." He proceeded to put away my groceries, eating one or two in the process. He stops working when he stumbles upon the desserts I had bought an hour ago.
"You can't have any of those, they're for my family. And it's not like you paid for them anyway."
"Well," he says with a gasp,"I am truly hurt. I feel personally victimized by you Samantha. You can't just invite over the Duckman and not have anything to feed him as a reward."
"What are you talking about? You weren't even invited over, you practically walked in. There's no welcome mat out yet my friend."
"Not yet. Besides, I figured you'd be out buying one right now, at least that's what I assumed."
"Well really I would be out shopping right now but instead I'm wasting my time talking to a child like you."
"Where did you plan on going?" He says, eager to see my schedule for the rest of the day.
"What?"
"I mean, where do you plan on shopping? It's not like you know where to go."
"I'm a girl, if you've forgotten. I think I can find the mall with no trouble."
"But don't girls usually go shopping with their friends? Like when they go to the bathroom. You travel in herds wherever you go."
"What's your point?"
"I'm saying, why not have me come with you? I can show you around and can help with your shopping. Or I'll try at least, which ever one gets better results." I thought long and hard, and hated myself for coming up with this conclusion.
"I guess you can come with me. Grab your stuff and go to the car. It's in the garage. Let me just write a note real quick."
As he headed towards the station wagon, I grabbed a pencil and the closest piece of paper I could find. The note read:
Mom, went to the mall with Phil.
Will be back around 5, groceries are
Put away. Look in fridge for a surprise.
-Sam
....
"So Duckie, where shall we go first?"
"The mall is only fifteen minutes away, just get on 103 West and exit at 117. Eventually you'll see a building that says Parkview Mall."
"Can you look in the compartment for a tape to put in? I hate driving in silence. It always puts me on edge."
He opened the glove box to find a bunch of random tapes, none of which he found to his liking.
"The Carpenters... Frank Sinatra... The Greatest Hits of the Partridge Family? Talk about a drag. This is what people in this century listen to." He pulls out a cassette of The Police from his jacket pocket, and I instantly hear Roxanne blasting throughout the car.
"Do you carry that everywhere?" I should over the music.
"Not this one specifically. I change it out every once in a while with other bands. The last tape was The Cars and the one before that was David Bowie. What an amazing man. Ya know, in fifty years, he'll still be just as amazing as today."
"Well most guys I meet carry around their wallet, not tapes of their favorite bands."
"You never know when you'll need it."
     He started to drum on the already worn dashboard, thinking he was some kind of Keith Moon. We proceeded towards the mall, and I sat through twenty more minutes of this one man band. The urge to throw that tape out the window came across me two or three times. I just hope it won't get any worse from here....