The Most Wonderful Mess

Here I am, Friday night, 7:01 PM and I'm sitting in the most wonderful mess in the world. Chepa and Sierra and Alexa and Madeleina just left. And they left with enough food to feed Marco, Italo, Sara and by proxy, my granddaughter, Taylor.
They came over today to see the new ducks after Madeleina's school. it was Chepa's week with Madeleina but we bought three new ducks, just two days old, last Saturday, and Madeleina has had them in what used to be Marco's room. I went in there a couple of days ago and nearly killed myself stepping on chicken bones, wet bread, seeds and so forth that Madeleina had filled the room with for the baby ducks because, as she said, "They're too young to go out and stay with the big ones."
And then three days ago, with them having bonded to Madeleina as a mom, she was walking to feed the goat when the goat made something of a sudden move, making Madeleina change her path and she stepped on one of the baby ducks.
She came in screaming, in pain, begging me to kill it quickly to put it out of its misery.
I called on all the shaman helpers I know and asked the to breathe iife back into it if it had any left and damn if the baby duck, ostensibly dead, didn't sit up and start crying. We fed it water and food and Madeleina went home with Chepa that night with me saying there was no way I would kill the duck as it wasn't dead.
At three that morning, I looked in on it and she was fine, getting better, drinking water.
At five the same thing.
But at 6:30 AM I discovered that she'd turned herself over onto her crushed side and the weight was too much for her and she'd died. So I buried her and when Madeleina heard of it she cried for an hour publicly and is still crying now, a few days later. I tried to explain that infant mortality was why so many animals have 20-30-50 babies at a time--just hoping one can make it from the group--but that didn't reduce the pain she felt from stepping on one.
Today, Chepa came over with the kids so that Madeleina could play with the two remaining baby ducks and feed all the other animals. They'd planned on going to the movies at 6 PM but I bribed them with the thought of fried chicken and fresh cucumber, tomato and onion salad with good basmati rice and spinach in garlic--along with a promise to kick in $25 to the movie outing tomorrow--and they stayed.
And that was magical. The girls, Sierra and Alexa, have decided that my house is a library and each day give me 50 or so books to take out. They pile them up on the ground from my shelves and insist I read a little to them. There are classics, mysteries, how to books, shakespeare, sherlock holmes, childrens' books, books I've written essays for....maybe two thousand here and they can't ever bring me enough.
And then they played with the baby ducks in the pool of poisonous rainwater in the driveway and both Sierra and Alexa doffed their clothes after they were wet, and Madeleina changed into pajamas and Chepa took them home and now I'm alone and sad and looking at a kitchen that looks like Sierra, Madeleina, Chepa and Alexa just ran through it as an aggregate hurricaine and there are pots and plates and grease stains everywhere. And in the living room the rug has been turned into the covering of a clubhouse, the essential component of which is my old rocking chair. And all I can do is say THANKS, GOD, for bringing these crazy creatures into my life!!!!! What little price it is to pay to have to spend an hour cleaning up for every hour they are here? That's nothing!!!!
Not that I'll clean tonight. OR tomorrow morning. But I will get to it in the interest of cleanliness in the next day or so and until then I will simply be in love with those crazy girls. Absolutely in love with them and their stinking mess.
That's the way love is, I think. Who can think of a mess when you got hugged to your soul on the way out. And I got that, so I think I'm way ahead, eh?