The Conference on Beautiful Moments

DUCK PILLS

D u c k P i l l s I didn’t want to make the King nervous but I couldn’t help getting closer to the rail. We were up so high and outside the glass walls of The Link, the city was shining with all its Christmas lights. Then the glass walls ended. “Give me your hand,” he said.“Let’s walk in the middle of the floor.” “Why, Daddy? I’m not going to fall over.” “Just indulge me,” the King said.“Just do it for me.” We were on The Link, which connected the hotel with all the stores and restaurants and movie theaters, and maybe the rest of Kansas City, too. The King said The Link was bigger than Kansas City, which made me laugh. Then the glass wall returned and we walked closer to the rail,but I kept my hand in his anyway. I saw birds lit up in gold, the giant Christmas tree outside with the star on top, and lights draped over the tree like a long necklace it was wearing. We got lost on The Link. When we finally were back in the room I made my pillow tower and my pillow slide and, with a little help from the King, my sheet tent. I was back in my bed and he was bending over me. “Didn’t we have a special day today?” “Yah.We got lost on The Link three times,”I said laughing,“every time we went out to eat.” The King laughed and said, “That’s true, but besides that didn’t we have some special moments today?” “Yes Daddy.” 135 136 t h e c o n f e r e n c e o n b e a u t i f u l m o m e n t s “It’s important to have special moments. My father wanted to have them with me. He wanted to take me on trips so we could have special moments too, but he was always busy with his work. I’ll never be too busy to take trips with you, though, never. Even now that you’ll be with mom most of the time. Do you understand?” “Yes Daddy.” Then the King closed the book he’d been reading to me and kissed my hair like he always did. We were in Loose Park looking for the duck pond. I’d been making maps in the hotel when the King said we had to go outside. “Why? Why do we have to go outside?” “We didn’t travel six hours just to stay in a hotel room, that’s why,” he said. The King made a deal with me—saying I could pick any place on the map of Kansas City and we’d go there. I picked Loose Park because the name was so funny, as if it had just escaped from its leash. “Do you think Loose Park will still be there when we get there or do you think it will have run away?” the King said to me in the cab and I laughed. I didn’t have to wear a coat. It was fifty-two degrees, but the pond was still half frozen anyway. We brought some bread from a bakery in The Link, but the ducks ignored our food. It was as if they were under a spell or maybe just very stupid ducks, like the King said. We walked on and on through Loose Park. It was very wide and scattered . “This park needs a link,” the King said, and we both laughed again. Finally we came to a children’s playground and I played there the rest of the afternoon. We got lost on The Link again that night. My legs hurt from walking, and I went to my bed quickly. “Daddy, when are we going home?” The King had just finished reading me a story. Every night I had “cre- ative time” during which I drew maps before he’d read to me. I used to write stories during creative time about the animal characters the King and I made up, like Baby Claw, Tail, Happy Hedgehog, Tiny Duck, and Duckling Van Duckling, but now I just drew maps of cities like Chicago or Kansas City, or of Clawton and Hogtown. On the maps I drew and labeled the important streets, avenues, and highway...