Do Not Befriend the Livestock

It was a lesson hard-learned, though, to be fair, I’ve had ample opportunity to learn it. Some of you may remember the tale of the mouse I rescued from the cistern during training only to find it dead less than 24 hours later. This time is was a duck.

Some Cambodian ducks are ugly. They have a weird red bumpy growth on their beak and face that looks like an awful case of acne, but not Norbert the duck. Norbert appeared one day in front of my host family’s house. He was a beautiful and friendly looking duck with a thin blue plastic string tying his feet together at one end and attached to a table at the other.

Clearly the beginning of our relationship was, well, less than ideal. Nonetheless, I had pictures of a long and happy life together with Norbert. He was ferociously feeding on some rice grains that someone had put in front of him; if you’re going to kill and eat a duck, why would you feed it? No point in wasting the rice, the aqua vitae of Cambodia, and no sense putting poop into its intestines. Better to let the poop be voided and thereby avoid later removing it oneself before enjoying the intestines. Plus, you can’t plump an animal up overnight (despite my host family’s comments on my girth after being gone for only a day or two), so if they were plumping Norbert he’d be my companion for at least a while.

I got quite used to seeing Norby on my way to school, and of course greeted him when coming and going. Then a few short days into our relationship the rice disappeared, and so did Norbert. This is how I know Norbert was a male duck. After his needs were satiated he was gone from my life.

At dinner that night I sprinkled a few pieces of roasted meat onto my rice. It could have been anything since it was cut up into pieces and my eye is far from discerning when it comes to meat. I bit into it and it was juicy, tasted similar to chicken, but was a little chewier. I believe I ate a little bit of my Norbert the duck. I guess I got my just desserts: Norbert broke my heart with his devilish good looks and always being there for me – I knew it was more than the rope around his legs keeping him there – until he suddenly took off, but I know I really got under his skin in the end.