Fishpond

Gail Aldwin 

pistachio milkshake

There’s splashing in the fishpond when I put out the rubbish and I guess the frogs are at it again. I find a torch and shine it over. Some of them are riding piggy back like double headed beasts. There’s at least a dozen in there – that must make it an orgy. A toad sits on the edge, winking at me. His ungainly body becomes lithe when he springs into the water. I watch the activity like a voyeur then I scuttle back to the kitchen.

            In the morning, a Mallard observes the results of the night’s activity. Standing on one leg, he cocks his silky jade head, then takes a stroll around the pond.  When he quacks, the female descends, spread winged from the roof.  She’s like a babe in a bathtub, scooping through the weeds with her beak, throwing back her head to gobble spawn.  

Gail Aldwin’s short stories and flash fiction have appeared in on-line publications and she has two short stories featuring in print anthologies to be published in 2012.   Gail is currently redrafting a manuscript titled Manipulation which is set in Outback Australia and tells the story of a gap year that goes wrong.  In What the Dickens? Magazine, Gail has a regular column that answers writers’ questions. Gail lives in Dorset and writes blog posts about all things literary:   http://gailaldwin.wordpress.com