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The story below is based on an absolutely, 100% true event. It happened in Alaska.

         There was a bridge everyone passed over on the way to the grocery store.  A creek ran under it, and tons and tons of ducks and geese made their home there.  Or at least seemed to make their home there.  They might have flown off at night to nests in other places.  The newcomer wasn’t sure.  But during the day they gathered next to the bridge over the creek.  At least a hundred of them.  They came because so many people fed them.

         Any time you drove over the bridge there would be at least two cars parked at the turnoff.  Usually a camper or a rental car with tourists feeding the ducks and geese.  They gave them old bread and crackers.  Some gave popcorn.  There was no better place to get close so many wild ducks and geese.

         The newcomer wasn’t a tourist.  He went over the bridge every day on his way to and from work.  After a while he noticed that there was one car that was there a lot.  It was an old, brown, beat-up station wagon.  The same man was always standing beside it with a big bag of food for the birds.  He was there with all the tourists, and he was there when the weather turned cold.  He was even there in the dead of winter.

         One day in early autumn the newcomer decided to stop to talk to the old man.  He wanted to meet him.  He pulled into the turnoff, parked his car, and got out.  The old man was standing there with the burlap sack in his hands.  The ducks and geese were waddling all around him.  But they stood at a safe distance, warily eating the crumbs that were thrown. 

         “Hey there,� said the newcomer.

         The old man looked at him.  He was shorter up close than the newcomer had expected.  “Hey there yourself,� he said.  “Come to feed the birds?�

         “Actually, I came to talk,� said the newcomer. 

         “Oh?� said the old man.

         The newcomer motioned to the road with his chin.  “I see you almost every day when I drive past on the way home from work.  I wondered why you come out to feed the ducks in the summer when the tourists give them more than enough; and I wondered why you come out in the middle of winter when it's so cold.�

         The old man smiled and put his hand into the burlap sack.  He threw another handful of bread crumbs.  A big fat goose started honking and driving another goose out of its way.  Five mallards went for the crumbs while the bigger birds finished their dispute. 

         “Ducks and geese have to eat when it’s cold, you know,� the old man said.  “If I don’t feed them, who will?  They need a lot of fat to stay warm in a place like this.�

         “Fair enough,� said the newcomer.  “But then why do you feed them in the summer?  The tourists give them plenty.�

         “We have to look after what’s been given to us,� said the old man bending down slowly with a handful of crumbs for the ducks.  “Besides, all of us appreciate a free meal once in a while, don’t we?�

         A pretty brown mallard nibbled out of his hand.

         “Fair enough,� the newcomer said again, realizing that he might not get a specific answer. 

         In that moment the old man’s hands flashed, and a second later he had the pretty mallard’s neck in his fist.  He stood and twisted twice.  In a fury of feathers and quacks the other ducks and geese fled.

         “Everyone appreciates a free meal once in a while,� the old man said to the newcomer, holding the lifeless duck and grinning.  “See?  See?�

         The newcomer stood at a distance shifting his weight from one leg to the other.  He saw all right.  He got in his car and got out of there as fast as he could.