Out past the horizon

Sunday Column

This duck, this yellow duck lost on a river in far far away China, captivated me as a child.

Everything about his world was alien to my eyes: a houseboat, ducks nothing like the ones that swam in our dam, a vast vast river that people made their home, the sky a much dimmer softer one than ours. 

Off the boat Ping’s family and all the other ducks would wad…