17 Sep 2025

Make Way for (22) Ducklings

by Carrie Frye

Last Friday my friend Darcy went to the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. At one of the booths, you could write in auction bids for five different lots of farm animals. Darcy lowballed bids for each of the lots and then went off to see the rest of the fair, hoping fervently to not be successful. One of the lots was for a sow with a litter of pigs: Where would she put them? Darcy, who’s 33 or so, doesn’t have a farm. Just a yard with chickens, an older pig (Wilbur), a dog who watches out for the chickens, and her four children moving like quicksilver in and out of the house.

Winners were going to be notified by Saturday at noon. Saturday at noon came and went. Darcy exhaled. She hadn’t won any of the lots. Phew!

Then Sunday, her phone rang. A chill went down her spine as soon as she heard it. The caller ID read “WNC Ag Center.” This was all like a horror movie where the heroine thinks she’s escaped the killer but has not in fact escaped the killer … the killer in this case being the ag center calling to tell you that you have successfully won a bid and “please come tomorrow to pick up your 22 ducklings.”