Come On Boy, Let's Go Duck Hunting

Ambling Along

Come On Boy, Let's Go
Duck Hunting

by Jay Hudson

"Come on Jay, let's go duck hunting," said my friend's, Chester, and Slick.

" All of us are going after work," said Chester. " Slick, me, Ricky, Archie, Clyde, and the Preacher too. I want you to go so you can see how I handle my new twelve gauge automatic."

" Nope, can't do it," I said. " I quit hunting when I was eighteen years old. That last time, I shot a squirrel, and when it fell to the ground, it had a ear of corn in a death grip in it's little mouth. It bothered me so much that I quit hunting for good.

I know you yahoo's are just going to play cowboy's and ducks."

All these fellows were my co-workers at the cottonmill.

" Aw come on Jay. Go with us," said Chester, again. " Ricky know's where this pond is that's full of ducks about sundown every day. More ducks than you can shake a stick at. It'll be just like, well, shooting ducks, hah hah hah," he laughed. " The ducks will be flying in to the pond. The sun will already be set. You can't miss 'em. Ricky says they's so many coming in to land that you can fire five shots and have time to re-load again."

" Nope, I ain't goin. I made up my mind, I told you," I said again.

" Well, you'll be sorry when you see all the ducks we get this evening," said Chester. " The game warden don't even know about this pond, it's so far off the road, hah hah hah," he laughed again.

Ricky and Chester were both natural born talkers. Either one could just about talk the ducks into landing in a convenient spot.

Chester was a talker alright, but he had a serious weakness. He was very susceptible to smooth talker's like he was. If one came along and suggested they do some fool thing, most likely, Chester was ready to go do it right then.

That's how it started. Ricky got Chester fired up so bad talking about all those ducks, Chester bought a new twelve gauge just to hunt ducks.

I don't know how I was able to avoid going with them.

They talked about it all week. Everytime one of them came to the supply room, they mentioned it, but I was determined not to give in, and I didn't.

It was a Friday, and they were going just before dark. I said bye to them all as our shift ended.

I didn't think about duck hunting the rest of the weekend. I didn't see any of them until we went back to work Monday morning.

Chester was the first to meet me as our shift went to work. He was walking with his head down and a dejected look on his face.

I knew something bad had happened.

" Jay, I done messed up real bad," said Chester, waving his hands as he talked. "We all drove down to the pond Friday, just like we said we was going to do. The pond was at least a mile off the highway. They was only one little old dirt road into the pond. The sun was just setting when we pulled up to the water. Soon as I got out of the car, here they come , hundreds of ducks, ducks everywhere. The sky done turned black they was so many ducks. Me and Slick was on the left side, and Ricky, Preacher, Archie, and Clyde was on the right."

"We all a blasting away at 'em. Ducks falling everywhere around us. I killed five, and had to reload. I shot three more before they scattered. I put my eight ducks in the floor of the car and hollered to Slick, " boy we sure nailed 'em good , didn't we Slick? We better get out of her now."

" Everbody was already piled in their car's by then. Ricky, and Preacher were in the lead going back out the dirt road."

Jay you ain't gonna believe this, but the game warden was sitting at the end of the dirt road waiting on us. He had the road blocked so we couldn't run. I don't know how he knew about us, but he did. He gave tickets to all of us. He took all our guns, and the ducks too. I need your help real bad, Jay. We got to go to court Wednesday morning. Could you loan me fifty dollars to pay the fine? The game warden said the fine would be fifty dollars. I'll pay you back next Thursday."

" I guess I can loan you the money Chester," I said. " I told you that was a fool thing to do, didn't I ?"

I loaned Chester the money to pay his fine, and he paid me back just like he said he would. The other cowboy's were real quiet. They didn't talk about duck hunting for a couple of weeks.

That was the last time Chester went hunting.

Copyright-(c)-Jay Hudson- All rights recerved. No reproduction or transmission by any means without expressed written permission of Jay Hudson.