Beyond the Boat Pond- Digital Collage 5" x7"

"Adler, Darling! Get off that bird right now!" demanded Mrs. Milford from the edge of the pond.
"Make me," replied the boy with a smirk.
"Young Man! You do not speak to your mother that way!" The elegant woman wagged a finger at her son. The boy turned his gaze to the magnificent teak-decked model ship bobbing beneath his feet.
"Adler, birds carry terrible diseases. You don't want to come down with something, do you?"
"I don't care," he replied defiantly reaching out and stroking the swan's sweeping indigo neck.
The woman's face turned crimson, a rictus of outrage blossoming there. She sputtered, unable to find words."That's it!" she yelled. Hiking up her skirts she stepped over the curb and into the shallow boat pond. The boy's eyes widened, but his smirk remained. He watched her wade toward him. As she approached, he swung around in his mount and draped his arms around the swan's neck. The great bird started paddling toward the far side of the pond. Looking over his shoulder he saw his mother snatch up his beloved ship. "Give that back," he called.
"Your yachting days are most definitely over," she called across the water.
"Give it back right now!" cried the boy.
"No," she answered.
The boy turned from her and leaned over the swan as if whispering something in its ear. The bird began flapping its great wings and started to rise above the water. The mother paralyzed watched as her son took flight.
"I'm never coming home, you...you boat stealer!" he shouted down to her.
Mrs. Milford watched as the bird sailed out of the park and across Fifth Avenue. Dashing from the pond, she ran up the berm to the wall at the park's edge just in time to see the bird smack into the first floor window of the townhouse across the street. Her son sommersalted backward off the swan and fell into a neatly trimmed hedge. Weaving between oncoming traffic, Mrs. Milford, soaked and furious collared her son and dragged him from the bush to his feet. "I don't think this was the fairytale ending you had in mind," she said with satisfaction.

Adler did his penance that summer at the piano in his family's living room, barred from the boat pond for the remainder of the season.