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They couldn’t get enough of her.
Huey was with his recently found mom, his brothers and uncle Donald and they were watching a tv marathon of Ottoman Empire. Huge buckets of popcorn that Mrs. Beakly had prepared were in their hands, accompanied of course by pep soda.
Webby was at Violet’s house for a pajama party, along with Lena, and Scrooge presumably was preoccupied in his office.
Since their mom came back to their lives, the triples were fascinated by every detail in her, every word she said, every joke she made, every caress she gently placed in their faces… Everything.
However, they had different ways of expressing that admiration towards her.
Dewey (or Turbo, as he often demanded to be called) of course was the more enthusiastic one, due to both his temperament and his similarities with their mom, which were quite apparent. He and she would do burping contests all the time and stupid karaoke nights, to a point where Huey would sometimes feel jealous of their bonding. However, despite this, he was honestly glad that the two of them could get along so easily and effortlessly, and he thought that maybe with Dewey their mom could make the first step to breaking the ice between her and Louie and himself.
Dewey could not stop being amazed by her. Every time Huey saw him around Della, those movies where a regular kid meets his favourite pop idol and is obsessed over him would come to his mind. His brother was easy to forgive, quick to accept changes, and when he was fascinated by something he wouldn’t stop talking about it, or in this certain case he wouldn’t stop talking about or to their mother.
So, for Dewey their mother’s return was a dream-come-true, the most exciting thing that had ever happened in his life.
Louie on the other hand was always quieter around Della. He would never make a huge fuss over her or share her adventurous interests and cheerful mood. Typical Louie! He always pretended to be the toughest of the three. But he couldn’t foul anyone. His cheeks would always be the first that were filled with tears whenever Della sang to them, no matter how hastily he tried to wipe them off without anyone noticing.
Louie never asked to sit on her lap while she was sharing a story from her past with them, unlike Dewey and Huey who were fighting over it and exchanged turns every night. However, the look on his face as he was watching her speak was brimming with adoration, his eyes melting at her presence. Huey had never seen him look at anyone like that. He knew him well enough to realize that he would never express openly his feelings, but he was the one that was experiencing them deeper than probably any duck he had ever met in the world.
So, for Louie, their mom coming back was the fulfillment of his most fathomless need, of a desire that he never even dared to imagine. In the beginning it was difficult for him to accept this change. After all, he wasn’t a person that could connect quickly with others, but as the time passed all of his shields and hesitations gave way to a shy but true love and trust.
But for Huey? Sure, Della had the spirit of a true Junior Woodchunk, and her knowledge on pretty much anything was something he whole-heartedly admired, but if he was to be totally honest with himself… he couldn’t see her as their mother just yet. Maybe she was more of a funny adventure buddy, or a super cool nanny with whom they shared similar interests, or at best a close relative he was very fond of and really cared about, but her parental figure was not yet established.
Maybe he just needed time. Maybe that was just her style. She was definitely nothing like uncle Donald, who was strict and—
“Wait a minute, where’s uncle Donald?” Huey asked, realizing he was missing for quite a time.
“Said he’d be going to the bathroom” Louie replied without taking his eyes off of the television.
“He said that like an hour ago!” Huey said.
“Whatever, maybe he chickened out and went to sleep. You know he can’t stand all-night marathons”.
“Yeah, he seemed pretty tired today. Well, more than usually, that is” Huey noticed.
Dewey shushed him and told him to watch the show and stop annoying them.
But the truth is that Huey never really liked Ottoman Empire. He just watched it because of his family. He really wanted to connect with them, it seemed to him like a duty. However, sometimes he felt like he was really forcing himself to spend time with them, especially since Della came back, and he wasn’t quite enjoying it as he imagined.
Who could he fool? His eyes kept closing! It was far too late for him and he didn’t even like the show, he was bored to death! Clearly this sort of entertainment and family bonding was not for him, especially at this hour.
He decided to go to sleep, and perhaps tomorrow he could spend time with his mom talking about the Junior Woodchunks or… well pretty much anything scientific. Maybe astrophysics or things she learned on the moon. But no, this was a bad idea, lately she wasn’t too eager to talk about that. Whatever, he would just go to her along with Dewey or Louie and they would find something to occupy themselves with.
“I’m off to bed. Goodnight, everyone. See you in the morning” he said and got up from the couch.
“Goodnight, honey!” Della placed a kiss on his forehead. “Oh, my sleepy boy! Mom loves you!”
Dewey began making chicken noises as Huey was going up-stairs, but he ignored them.
As he was getting ready to go to bed, wearing his pyjamas and everything, he looked out of the window and noticed that all the lights on uncle Donald’s boat in the pool were on.
“So, he’s not sleeping”.
Then a loud noise came from the boat’s side, like a heavy object had fallen on the floor, and uncle Donald’s distinctive angry cries were heard.
“He must be rearranging” Huey thought. “Or fixing the broken sink. Or the broken bed. Come to think of it, he might be fixing everything. That place needs more restoration than the ruins of Duckropolis”.
Uncle Donald shouted again. Another accident.
“Well, if he’s not gonna let me sleep, at least I can help him finish sooner with… whatever it is he is doing” Huey thought and got up from his bed.
As he passed by the living room he noticed that mom and his brothers had fallen all asleep. Dewey was even snoring.
A smirk appeared in Huey’s face as he was turning off the television and headed to the pool.
“Uncle Donald, what are you doing?” he asked as soon as he saw countless boxes all over the place. It was a total mess.
“What?” Donald turned around and saw his nephew. “Oh, hey Huey! What are you doing here? I thought you were having an all-night tv marathon”.
“We were but no one managed to stay awake”.
“I can’t say this is unexpected. You were running around all day, of course you needed rest! Stop acting like an old man, Donald!” he mimicked Della’s voice. “Even Scrooge doesn’t say things like that! Stop ruining all the fun and come watch with us”.
Huey laughed awkwardly. His uncle was certainly not good at imitations.
“So, what is going on here? I didn’t think I’d find you awake at this hour. Do you need help with anything?” Huey asked.
“No, no. Just go back to sleep and I’ll keep it quiet, I promise”.
“Honestly, it looks like you really need a hand. I don’t mind”.
“No need, Huey. I can manage it. You go to bed. And no scrolling down on your mobile again, or I’ll have it confiscated. Understand?” he said in a serious tone.
“Yeah, but what are you even doing here? It seems like you’re packing up all the stuff in here” he inquired with a curious voice.
Donald looked at him for a few seconds without saying anything and then he sighed heavily.
“I guess there’s no point in hiding it. I’m taking all of our stuff out so I can sell the boat” he admitted.
“What? Wait, what? Are you serious?” he shouted surprised.
“Huey, quiet! It’s the middle of the night!” he reprimanded him.
“Are you joking me?” he continued without paying attention to him. “You can’t sell our boat! Why would you do that? That’s crazy”.
“I don’t need it anymore. I’m only one now, I don’t need all of this space. I’m going to rent something smaller”.
“What, like a yacht or—”
“No, not yacht or any time of boat. Just a small apartment. Preferably in the center, so I can be close to whatever job I find, but the rent is pretty high there so—”
“Are you serious?” he cut him off. “You’re leaving? But why? There are plenty of rooms in the manor”.
“You don’t understand, Huey. I can’t stay. I used to live here when I was a kid, but now I can’t depend on uncle Scrooge, I have to provide for myself. I’m an adult. And I need to find a job”.
“Did he say that? Is he kicking you out? Because if so—”
“No, he doesn’t even know I’m leaving”.
“Uncle Donald, that’s just absurd. Let’s get everything back where it belongs” Huey said while unboxing some dishes.
“Hey! Don’t touch the boxes, young man! I said I’m leaving and that’s final. There in the corner are some boxes with yours and your brother’s drawings and pictures I have kept. You can have these boxes, but don’t touch the rest of them. I worked pretty hard to prepare them!”
“Oh, I see. Yet another parent abandoning us! So now that Della’s back and you have uncle Scrooge to drop us off, you’re leaving!”
Donald’s face turned red. Huey of course knew of his anger issues, but he had never seen him like that; truly enraged. For a moment he was scared.
“How dare you say things like that!” he shouted. “That’s what you really think of me?”
“I’m just stating the obvious! No one really wants us. There’s always something else they love more. Adventure, money… You know what, you can just leave if that’s what you want!”
“I won’t be hearing another word from you tonight. To your room now! And think about what you just said. I didn’t raise you to be disrespectful”.
Huey slammed the door behind him.
Before getting back inside the manor, he did something he wanted to do for a long time. He stood there and he screamed. Letting it all out finally. Not caring if anyone heard him.
And then… the tears came.
Tears of anger, desperation and sadness. But most of all regret.
It was true, Donald didn’t raise him to speak like that.
Huey just needed someone to talk to at this moment. His brothers? No, it was always them who came to him, not vice-versa. Webby? She’d cry too, it was no use. Uncle Scrooge? He never really understood, no matter how hard he tried. His mom? He hated to admit it, but they weren’t that close. Not yet, anyways.
All he could do was return back to uncle Donald.
He hesitantly knocked the door before entering.
His uncle was sitting in his favourite rocking chair. Once he saw him, he stood up. He tried to hide it, but Huey noticed it. He was crying.
“Huey! What is it?” he asked, calmer than before.
Instead of replying with words, the boy just run to him and hugged him.
“I’m so sorry, uncle Donald. I shouldn’t have spoken like that, especially to you of all people. I’m just really confused about everything! And I don’t understand. Why do you want to leave?”
“Oh, Huey” the older duck hugged him back. “How in the world did you believe that I would ever want to be away from you? I didn’t even really want to go on that stupid cruise you booked for me. I’ll always be there for you. I’ll be visiting you all the time! And maybe if I find a good job, I will bring you presents and make up for all those things I couldn’t afford back then”.
“We don’t want gifts! Okay, maybe Louie does, but I don’t care about them. I just want you”.
Donald lifted his nephew up and seated him on the couch, before sitting in his chair right opposite to him.
“I’ve done my part. I wasn’t the best, I know. But now it’s over. Your mother is back. You should be with her. You know she loves you all very much” he whispered while whipping off the tears of Huey’s face with his thumb.
“But why can’t we all be together?”
Uncle Donald took a few deep breaths.
“Because you don’t need me anymore. You’ve got everything right here. Della is amazing. You guys adore her, and you have every right to! Why would you want someone like me around when you’ve got her? She survived a crush in the moon, she built her own spaceship! How can I compete with that? I’m just a boring guy who can’t keep a decent job for more than a few months and hasn’t done anything with his life. I can’t even fix my boat”.
“Don’t say that, uncle Donald”.
“It’s true. Why should I keep staying here? It’s not like you even want to talk to me”.
Huey felt a sudden pain in his heart. His uncle was right. When was the last time he visited him on the boat? He couldn’t even remember. They were all so excited about Della that they neglected Donald. It was like he didn’t even exist.
Huey thought about it. All these hours they spend playing video games with Della, listening to her stories, food fighting, playing hide and seek all over the manor… And Donald was on his boat, trying to fix it and sitting all by himself. Without anyone to talk to, not even about stupid stuff like the weather.
Maybe in the beginning he just wanted to give Della some time alone with her kids. After all, she deserved it. But the weeks went by, and there had been a few days that Huey hadn’t seen uncle Donald at all. He was too busy with his mom that he had forgotten that when she wasn’t there someone else was. And was always going to be. And Huey didn’t appreciate that.
They sat there quiet.
Huey felt so embarrassed, so regretful, seeing his uncle’s sad expression all over his face.
“You know, uncle Donald” he began saying with a weak voice. “Dewey says he wants to be exactly like mom. Adventurous, reckless, always ready for action! Louie, on the hand, admires uncle Scrooge’s great fortune and uncle Gladstone’s unfailing luck. But me… Whenever I really think of it, when I’m alone or at night in bed, I always think that the example I want to follow is yours”.
Donald’s eyes widened with surprise.
“I’m not saying that being the richest duck in the world through mere hard work and determination is not something to look up to, or that surviving in the moon for ten years and building a spaceship on your own is easy. But what about you, uncle Donald? Sure, you don’t have any titles like ‘The King of Mississippi’, but you are a parent!”
“So what? Many people are parents, most of them better than I could ever hope to be” Donald sighed heavily.
“Are you kidding? You took us in, with no help from anyone, without knowing the first thing about raising kids, without ever having a stable job or a proper house for what matters”.
“Thanks for rubbing all that in my face. It was all that I needed right now” his uncle complained.
“No, uncle Donald! All I’m saying is that what you did is truly remarkable! You worked hard for us for ten years, you gave up your own life and comfort just so you could provide for us. It could take hours just to think of everything you’ve done for us. All those sacrifices, the late shifts and double jobs, the exhaustion that you felt every single day and always tried to hide from us, your care, your warm soups and hugs when we were sick, your presence at each school play, your comforting words when we were sad…”
“Huey, what else was I supposed to do? Don’t act like I was some sort of super hero. You say all that like I had a choice” he murmured, his eyes fixed on the wooden floor, when all of a sudden a tight hug surprised him.
His nephew left the couch and sat on his lap.
“You are my super hero, uncle Donald” Huey declared with tears in his eyes. “You chose each day to stand by us, when no one else was there”.
Donald hugged his nephew back. A weight in his throat made it difficult for him to speak.
“I had to. I tried to do the best that I could, and I know that it was not enough, but—”
“Not enough?” Huey interrupted him. “You did an excellent job! Do you even realize that?” he shouted almost angry at him, his face buried in his shoulder, his whole small body shaking. “And maybe it’s our fault that you haven’t. We always took you for granted, we never showed you how much we appreciate you. It’s just that we got super enthusiastic now that mom is here. These past weeks we only focus on her to make up for all those years of her absence, but we neglected you. I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay, Huey. I can’t blame you for wanting to spend time with your own mom. I missed her too. Really much, more than words can express. I get that you just want to be around her all the time. You don’t have to apologize”.
“I do, because you don’t get the credit you deserve. And no matter whoever relative, close or distant, comes back from the moon or any other place in the universe, I just want to tell you, uncle Donald, that you are irreplaceable! Don’t ever decide we don’t need you anymore, not even when we’re a hundred and fifty years old, like uncle Scrooge”.
Donald knew that he was being serious, but couldn’t help but laugh at those words.
“I can’t even begin to describe how grateful we are to you for everything you’ve done!” Huey continued. “And I promise we’ll be expressing this to you much more often from now on. Just please, uncle Donald, don’t leave!” he cried. “Don’t leave us, I beg you!”
“Oh, my baby, I… I don’t…” Donald rubbed his back, unsure of how to respond.
“Stay here! We’ve already lost one parent, we can’t lose a second one!” he burst out in a waterfall of tears.
They stayed there, Huey in the arms of Donald, for a few good minutes. No words, no repositions. Just Donald holding his nephew tight, craddling back and forth in his chair, rubbing gently his back and humming Della’s lullaby in his ear.
After a while, Huey’s shoulders stopped shaking and his breathing was back to normal. He lifted his face up from his uncle chest, only to see him having tears in his eyes as well.
Donald quickly wiped them off.
“Are you better, little buddy?” he asked softly.
“Yes” he admitted, holding himself from crying again. “You inexplicably know exactly just how to calm me down, even though you can’t even calm yourself down”.
They both chuckled. It was true.
“So, what are you going to do?” the little duck continued.
Donald’s hands moved to his nephew’s red cheeks.
“I would never do anything that would make you sad”.
“So you’re staying?” his face lit up.
“I guess so”.
Huey hugged him once again, with the brightest smile in his face.
“Thanks, uncle Donald. I love you”.
“I know, I love you too” he held him tighter.
Neither knew exactly how long they stayed like that. It could have been two or twenty minutes. But they didn’t really care.
Until Huey yawned.
“Oh my, it’s really late!” Donald looked at the clock on the wall behind them. “I didn’t realize it. You should go and sleep”.
“Actually… I was wondering if maybe I could sleep here. I kinda miss our house”.
“Oh, sure, sure!” Donald replied happier than he had ever seen him lately. “You don’t even have to ask! It’s always going to be your home. I’m gonna get you some sheets and prepare your bed. I hope you don’t mind, there are a few stuff in your room”.
“Well… I… I thought that perhaps I could sleep with you if it’s okay”.
Donald’s eyes shined at the sound of that question, and Huey was under the impression that he was looking at him like he wanted to eat him.
“Aren’t you a little old for that?”
He shook his head with the cutest smile.
“Alright then, come on”.
The two ducks lied down on the bed and Donald closed the lights.
It had been a while since that had last happened. And they both missed it.
“Uncle Donald?” Huey whispered, not sure if he was still awake.
“Yes?” he replied with a sleepy voice.
“Can you sing the lullaby? Mom sings it to us every night, but I really missed hearing it from you”.
How could he refuse?
“ Look to the stars, my darling baby boys.
Life is strange and vast, filled with wonders and joys.
Face each new sun with eyes clear and true,
unafraid of the unknown, because I’ll face it all with you”.
And with those words, Huey fell asleep.