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In her ten or so years on the moon, Della Duck got used to a lot of things. She got used to no real change in weather; there wasn’t rain or snow to be had on that giant piece of space rock. She got used to it being quiet when she woke up; she thought she was the only person on the moon until the last few months of her stay there proved otherwise. She even got used to constantly chewing that blasted gum even in her sleep to keep herself alive and breathing.
Now that she was back on Earth, she had to readapt all over again. It took her a while to realize no, she did not need to chew gum while she slept anymore because Earth’s atmosphere was full of oxygen. Probably the fastest thing she picked up was the weather changing; it wasn’t the same thing every day, with sun or rain coming back every few days, and the changing of seasons bringing more drastic shifts like snow and falling leaves.
As for quiet mornings, it was a given that when you lived in McDuck Manor, quiet or noisy mornings were more inconsistent than the weather.
One particular morning for example…
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
“Yaaagh!”
A loud siren-like sound had Della snapping awake, scrambling to grab something as a weapon, and falling over out of bed as she whirled around to figure out what was going on.
“Ouch!” Della hissed, smacking her elbow on the floor. While she turned herself upright, she finally got a look at what had surprised her.
Her three sons were standing by her bedside, all grinning widely. In Louie’s hand was one of the many air horn canisters she had hidden around the house.
Okay, it looked like they were getting revenge on her for the rude wakeup call she gave them on her first full day back home.
“Happy Mother’s Day!” The triplets chorused. She heard a camera snap coming from the doorway, and spotted Donald with his phone in hand, likely in camera mode.
Oh, so not revenge.
Reaching around for her prosthetic leg, she said, “Really, Mother’s Day already?”
“Not just any Mother’s Day,” Dewey exclaimed, “your first official Mother’s Day since you came back!” He leaped at her once she got her leg twisted on, followed by Huey and Louie joining the hug.
“Aw, I love you too, boys.” Della smiled as she squeezed each boy and ruffled their hair feathers. “So, since today is so important for all of us, I take it you guys have an idea of how you want to celebrate?”
“Do we ever!” Huey pulled a notepad and pen out from under his hat where he usually kept his Woodchuck guidebook. “We brainstormed several ideas for how to make today special, and after a vote, we came up with something we all agreed on.”
Louie tucked the air horn in his hoodie pocket as he spoke. “Since you’ve been back, you’ve been getting to know us as how we’ve grown up. Having one-on-one mother-son time, learning our interests and favorites, and stuff. In that vein, we decided that today we’ll share our individual favorite places to eat.”
Della stood up, clapping her hands together. “Ooh, fun! I take it Funso’s is on the list then.”
Dewey shook his head. “Actually, no. That’s our favorite place to go as a group, meaning that’s out. It’s no fun to go without a big group anyway.”
“We’re going to eat at three different places today as a family,” Huey explained, tapping his notepad with his pen. “We’ll start with my place for breakfast, then Dewey’s for lunch, and Louie’s place for dinner.”
“And we’re taking care of everything, so don’t worry about money or driving us. We’ve saved up our own cash for today, and Uncle Donald agreed to chauffeur us around.” Louie pointed a finger at their uncle in the doorway, who waved good morning to his sister.
“I didn’t do as well as Huey and Louie on saving, so I had to borrow a bit from Uncle Donald and Launchpad to cover my part,” Dewey sheepishly admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
Della patted her middle son on the shoulder. “That’s okay. I was never the best with money, either.” She then looked between all three of her boys. “I think what you guys planned sounds like a great way to spend Mother’s Day. Just let me get dressed, and we can go have breakfast at Huey’s spot.” An excited sparkle appeared in her eye as she glanced at her eldest. “Where are we going?”
Huey put his notebook and pen away under his hat, and held up three fingers. “Four words, Mom – Junior Woodchuck-“
“Waffle Breakfast! Yeah, I love it!” Della cheered, raising a fist in the air.
The triplets, Donald, and Della were at the local Junior Woodchuck lodge, standing in line to get food. The lodge was full of kids with their mothers, eating waffles with a variety of toppings while eagerly chatting the morning away. There were a few Woodchuck parents in the kitchen, mixing waffle batter and making them while some others made sure the syrup and the toppings never ran out.
“Look! They have both round waffles and square waffles,” Huey pointed out as they picked up their plates and utensils. “I personally like the round ones. They’re circles with squares inside, and I just find that funny.”
Louie rolled his eyes as the family picked out their waffles and toppings. “Lame. Square waffles give you more for your money since the edges aren’t rounded off.” Making his point, he selected two square waffles from irons set out. Donald watched him attentively so he didn’t burn himself.
“I don’t really care about the shape, as long as I can drown mine in syrup.” While the others added syrup and one topping, Dewey added some of everything to his, resulting in a messy plate that would be a nightmare for the dishwasher at the event.
Once everyone had their waffles to their preferences, they sat down at a table and began eating.
“Mmm,” Donald hummed, taking his first bite.
“Oh yeah, that’s the stuff,” Della agreed, swallowing. She smiled brightly at her boys. “Good idea, Huey! I’ve always wanted to come to this.”
“Really? Same as us!” Huey exclaimed, plucking a strawberry with his fork. “Don’t get me wrong, the eggs and bacon breakfast the Junior Woodchucks hold for Father’s Day is great and all, but eggs and bacon aren’t as tasty as waffles and pancakes.”
“Speak for yourself,” Dewey quipped, his face covered in syrup and sugar.
“Dewey, napkin,” Donald said, prompting the blue nephew to clean his face.
Continuing her thought, Della said, “Anyway, I’ve wanted to come to this since they first started holding it. But that was after your grandma passed, and we were living with Uncle Scrooge by then, so we never got the chance to do this growing up. Same with the Father’s Day breakfast.”
“Uncle Scrooge didn’t want to come because he thought it was too expensive?” Louie guessed.
“Got it in one.”
Huey poked another piece of his food. “We always hoped you would come home so we could do this. Once you got back, I’ve been planning this in the schedule for months.”
Della wrapped an arm around him, rubbing his side comfortingly. “Sorry to keep you guys waiting.”
As they continued to eat, Donald took pictures for the photo album. Once they cleared their plates, they handed them back to the kitchen.
“So, where are we going once lunch rolls around?” Della asked.
Dewey raised an eyebrow playfully. “Let’s hold off on lunch talk until we’re actually hungry. Until then, there’s a Mother’s Day deal going on-“
“Down at the pier!” Dewey did jazz hands as he showed off the entrance to the Duckburg pier.
“If a mom plays a game with their kids, they win two prizes instead of one,” Louie explained.
“And since the gap between breakfast and lunch is smaller than the gap between lunch and dinner, this is a good way to burn off breakfast so we’ll be ready to eat by then,” Huey added.
Della nodded sagely, taking the whole situation very seriously. “Great plan. Let’s go!”
So the family of five spent the morning hours playing carnival games and going on rides and winning prizes. There were plenty of moms with children vying to win prizes, but none of them matched Della’s desire to win for all three of her sons. While he played a few rounds himself, Donald worked hard to take more photos for his sister and the boys to remember the day by.
While normally they would get candy and other snacks to nibble on at the pier, they restrained themselves for lunch at Dewey’s location of choice. According to him, it was located right there at the pier.
“Almost there… and voila!” Dewey gestured with his arms at their destination. “Hamburger Hippo!”
Della pumped a fist. “Yes! Hamburger Hippo, classic!”
Sitting at the countertop that went around the front of the restaurant, the family put their orders in. Della had the biggest burger of them all, two patties in her bun instead of one like everyone else with cheese on both patties. While Donald ordered himself some coffee, everyone else opted for a soda.
As they ate their burgers and gobbled down their fries, Della twisted toward Dewey.
“So what made you choose here?” she wondered.
Dewey slurped his soda before answering. “At first, it was just a place where Uncle Donald got us lunch or dinner for cheap when we couldn’t afford much. But after we moved in with Webby and Uncle Scrooge, this was the first place Launchpad and I went when we started hanging out as friends. Just two guys hanging out and having burgers.”
“Uh huh,” Della nodded along.
“Since you came back and started teaching me to fly like you and him, I thought maybe it could be a thing of ours. A pilot’s club thing,” he explained, taking a fry and spinning it between his fingers like a plane propeller.
“A pilot’s club thing,” Della mused aloud before smiling fondly, “yeah, I like the sound of that. Have you brought this up to Launchpad?”
Her middle son shook his head. “Not yet. I wanted to run it by you first, and see what you thought. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”
She reached over and hugged him, mindful not to make him spill his drink.
Once the hug was done and everyone had their fill, Della twisted in her seat to face Louie. “What’s the plan for dinner?”
He pulled his phone out of his hoodie to check the time. “You’ll find out later. We have lots of time. There’s somewhere else we need to be first.”
Della looked at him in confusion.
Now she understood.
After leaving the pier, Donald and the boys had taken her on a somewhat long drive, not giving her a clue to where they were going.
It wasn’t until they pulled up to the destination that she got her answer.
They got out of Donald’s car and walked over to the marked gravestones.
Hortense Duck.
“I-I’ve been back on Earth for a while now, and I never thought to come out h-here,” Della stammered, standing beside her boys.
She heard a thump, and looked back at the car to see Donald pulling a box out of the trunk. When he opened the box, she saw it was a modest bouquet of flowers.
“Uncle Donald always brings us out here each year to give her new flowers. It’s important for us to get to know her and grandpa,” explained Huey.
Donald held the flowers out to her. “Want to do the honors?”
She quietly accepted and he passed them over. Turning, she laid them in front of the gravestone and took a step back to observe how they looked.
Tears formed at the corners of her eyes.
“Hey, Mom. Dad. I’m b- I’m back. Sorry it took so long. There was an instruction manual, and moon mites, and lots of other things that kept me from getting back home sooner. Once I was back, I was so-so caught up in not missing anymore time with the boys that seeing you for the first time in years slipped my mind. I know it’s not an excuse…” Della said, rubbing her arm in shame.
Donald rested a hand on her shoulder.
Della took a deep breath, and glanced down at her prosthetic. “I lost my leg in the crash. For a while, I thought I was going to lose so much more than that. Thankfully, I didn’t lose more than I ended up missing out on.”
Louie squeezed her hand reassuringly.
“We can stay here for a while if that’s what you want to do,” he offered. “We can go to the place I had planned for dinner some other time.”
She squeezed it back. “No, I want to have dinner where you think we should. It wouldn’t be fair if Huey and Dewey got theirs today and you didn’t.” Taking a deep breath, she focused her stare on the gravestones. “I will be back for a lot more visits before the next Mother’s Day. I’ve got so many to make up for.”
Louie upgraded his hand squeeze to a hug, and his brothers and Donald followed suit, surrounding the motherly pilot with love.
They stayed like that for several minutes until they finally gave her some space.
Wiping her eyes, she gazed at her youngest. “Let’s go have dinner.”
Knowing Louie, Della expected somewhere fancy with an expensive menu so he could experience the life of the wealthy.
When they arrived at their destination, she was somewhat floored.
Rather than a glitzy restaurant, it was a humble little café called Charlie’s Diner in the more residential district of the city than downtown where all the pricey eateries were. Her shock stayed with her until she stumbled through ordering a personal pizza while they sat in a window booth.
“This… isn’t what I guessed Louie would pick,” she hesitantly admitted when her family noticed the look on her face.
Louie shrugged. “Charlie’s is our usual place to go for special occasions. Uncle Donald could never afford to take us to any of the finer restaurants, so this was as classy as we could get. Aside from Hamburger Hippo and Funso’s once in a full moon, we rarely ate out.”
“What counted as a special occasion?” Della asked as the waitress came around with their drinks.
“If all three of us got good grades on our tests, celebrating a really tough Junior Woodchuck badge, that sort of thing,” answered Huey, taking a sip of his soda right away. Della could already see his sugar buzz.
“Just little moments spread out between big ones like the first day of a new school year,” Donald elaborated.
“Cool, like when we got Uncle Scrooge to let us have pizza or ice cream as a treat,” Della said, understanding. She took a look around the restaurant.
It was a very homey place. Just sitting in the booth reminded her of the kitchen at home. The neutral tones of the walls, the lights just bright enough to light up the room but not make it blinding. The barstools across from them reminded her of the countertops.
“I don’t remember this place being around before I crashed,” she remarked.
Dewey played with his straw, shooting the wrapper off like a dart. “Yeah, we were really little when it first opened. Uncle Donald has a whole story about how he found it.”
Donald brightened at the mention of a story. “Oh yeah! You need to hear that one. See, it started one weekend when the boys were three or so…”
His story was cut off by the slam of a door. The few other patrons loitering around the restaurant either turned around on their stool or peeked their heads out of their booth like the Duck family did.
In the doorway were the Beagle Boys and their Ma.
“Everybody out! This diner’s holding a party for Ma!” Big Time declared, clenching a fist at anyone who dared to defy his order.
Louie rolled his eyes as the family pulled back into their booth. “Oh great, these guys. Couldn’t they have picked a different restaurant to barge into?”
Della’s beak curled into a snarl. “Don’t worry, honey. We’re not going to let them ruin our Mother’s Day just so they can have their own. Everybody grab what you can as a weapon.”
The next several minutes were a blur for the family.
Donald unleashed his wrath on Bouncer Beagle like the first time he did after he and the boys moved into McDuck Manor. Dewey flung dishes at Burger Beagle, Huey and Louie tag-teamed Big Time with Huey somehow using a napkin dispenser as a weapon and Louie using nothing but his wit to keep the shortest Beagle distracted.
Della faced Ma Beagle directly, mother against mother. Their fight migrated from the front of the restaurant into the back kitchen, where Della used a knife and a well-placed stick of butter to trap Ma in the freezer.
The police came and picked up the Beagle family, leaving Charlie’s Diner a mess. The head chef was so thankful to the famous Duck family for defending the restaurant from the Beagles that he decided their meal would be on the house.
Louie agreed, pleased to be saving his money, on the condition that they could still eat inside as intended.
Sitting at one of the few untouched booths from the scuffle, they ate their food and finished with mostly clean plates and filled bellies.
“Well, Mom, was your first Mother’s Day back great, or what?” Dewey asked, letting out a burp after he finished the question.
Resting a hand over her full stomach, she gave a satisfied nod. “You kids bet it was. We went to a waffle bar, saw Grandma, and we even got into a fight with one of our regular enemies. Best day I had in a while!”
“We’re glad,” Huey smiled across the table. “We could have just gotten you presents and been done with it, but we all agreed we wanted to share a meaningful experience with you instead.”
“Thanks, boys. I feel like I know you all a bit better than I did before, and that’s the best present I could have gotten.” She looked at her sons appreciatively before glancing up at her brother. “Thanks for driving us around today, Donald.”
“It was my pleasure.” He took out his phone. “Now, how about one last picture?”
“Family hug!” Louie declared, and they all squeezed out of the booth so they could all hug properly.
Once everyone was grouped together in front of the booth, Donald held out his phone and put it into selfie mode. The camera clicked as Donald and the boys all had an arm around Della and one of the others while Della tried her best to hug all three of her sons at the same time.
When Della looked back on the pictures from that day, she decided that last one was the best without contest.
In her ten or so years on the moon, Della Duck got used to a lot of things. She got used to the idealized versions of her boys she imagined in her head. She got used to spending every holiday by herself, even if she believed she wasn’t by broadcasting her transmissions to Earth, thinking her family was receiving them. She even got used to solely eating that stupid gum once her rations of canned and tubed non-perishables ran out.
Now that she was back on Earth, she had to readapt all over again. She still had trouble shaking off her idealized versions of the boys as Jet, Turbo, and Rebel sometimes. Every once in a while, she forgot that she was no longer eating the gum all the time, and needed to eat actual food.
As for spending every holiday with her family instead of alone, she readapted to that with no problems, and had no intention of doing otherwise ever again.
The End