DuckTales: As We Grow Older...

4

The boys had curled up next to Donald, who was watching a movie. Donald made a move to turn it off, but Dewey grabbed the remote.

"We wanna watch," he said.

On the screen, a little girl was hugging her mother.

"Why are they crying?" Louie asked.

"The little girl was lost, but she found her mom again."

"What about our mama?" Dewey asked. "Is she lost?"

"She's just...gone."

Dewey often asked questions about Della, ever since he found a picture of her last year. The boys probably wouldn't be able to understand death just yet, and Donald hoped he wouldn't have to tell them what happened.

"Will our mama come back?"

"Yes, some day, you'll see her."

"What about our daddy?" Huey asked.

"Uh, maybe. He's...somewhere else, away from Duckburg."

"Why?"

"He's...he's an animator."

"Huh?"

"He draws cartoons, like the ones you see on TV."

"Can we see his cartoons?"

Donald left the room and came back a few minutes later with a drawing of a llama.

"He drew that," he said. "He gave this to me before you were born."

"Wow," Huey said, looking at the drawing. "He drew that? Can I be an amiminator someday?"

"Sure, if that's what you want."

"Can I be the mayor of Duckburg?" Louie asked.

"Can I be an astronaut?" Dewey asked.

Donald felt a sharp stabbing sensation in his chest. Dewey, an astronaut? He'd surely be killed out there.

"Like Della," he mumbled aloud.

"Who?" Dewey asked, tilting his head to the side.

"No one. Just a friend of mine, who...moved away from Duckburg long before you were born."

"Can we meet her someday?"

"No, she wouldn't recognize me. I was...younger then, and...I sounded and looked different."

"Aw."

"Boys, you should go to your rooms. It's getting late and you should be in bed."

"Okay, Unca Donald," the triplets said in unison, heading to their rooms.

Donald put his drawing away, and sat on the couch. The boys had recently turned 3, and they were asking more questions than ever. Not only that, Dewey was extremely curious. It was only a matter of time before he found out what happened to Della.

And he wanted to be an astronaut, too. He'd die out there, just like her. Who knows, maybe he'll go out there and leave his beautiful children behind.

It was too much to think about. Donald simply plugged in some headphones into an MP3 and turned the music up to full volume to drown out his distressing thoughts.