The Duck Ruins Lemonade - Part Two

Sheena, the Cat, had not planned on starting a lemonade stand that day. But given how many people were in line for the Duck’s complete sham/money-grab of a lemonade stand she knew there were going to be a lot of disappointed folks yearning for a real glass of lemonade very soon. Disappointment has a way of turning into disillusionment and Sheena was not about to let disillusionment infect her forest community -- Not if she had something to say about it.

The first thing Sheena did was send Morris, the Skunk, off to buy a bunch of lemons and a lot of sugar.

"How much should I get?" Morris asked.

"All of it," replied Sheena.

Sheena could see some hesitation in Morris' face.

"You'll be reimbursed!" Sheena yelled, "Besides, there's probably going to be PLENTY of lemons and sugar at the grocery store, it's not like the Duck bought them out!"

"Awesome," Morris replied, relieved, "I'll be quick!" And he took off for the grocery store as fast as he could.

Then Sheena had to convince everyone still in the long lemonade line to wait till she could gather her ingredients and open a competing lemonade stand with quality ingredients and real lemonade. But how could she convince everyone to leave a real line for her theoretical one that didn't actually exist yet? Sheena had to think quickly.

“Hey Randy,” Sheena asked the Squirrel (the first customer/lemonade victim of the Duck), “If you really want to teach the Duck a lesson don’t yell at the ducklings. Go tell all the line that this lemonade sucks and if they could wait for 30 minutes while someone runs to the store they could have good high quality lemonade for half the price.”

Randy agreed and quickly worked on a simple pitch:

"Hey everyone, this lemonade sucks! I was the first in line to try it! It's not even Lemonade, it's just water with a drop of lemon in it!"

Randy got some curious listeners but no one really took what he was saying too seriously. There's always a danger, an element of risk, in listening to one person standing outside of the line.

Now the Duck wasn’t going to sit back and just allow a competing lemonade stand to ruin his money-making idea. He quickly formed an idea and started walking the line with an announcement.

“Ladies and Gentleman, we have just been informed that because our lemonade is so delicious, a competing lemonade stand is about to set up shop! Booooooo!” the Duck began.

Before long, the whole line was booing just the concept of another lemonade stand. The line started moving again and the ducklings were once again moving product.

"Now what's that old saying," continued the Duck, "You know you're doing something right in life when you've got a lot of haters. Ladies and gentlemen, if that's true, we must be doing something amazing, am I right?"

Cheers from the line.

Sheena ran over to try and plead her case, knowing the truth was on her side.

“No, no, the Lemonade from the lemonade stand is fake lemonade!” Sheena pleaded, “I’m trying to save you, just ask the Squirrel, he was a victim!”

“Yeah!” The Squirrel shouted, “That lemonade sucks!”

But it was too late, the line erupted in jeers and shouts:

“Oh my god, how could you say that?”

“Look at how cute the ducklings are!”

“You’re being a rude idiot!”

"Haters!"

Now the whole line was turning on Sheena and the Squirrel. The Duck was an evil genius. It’s hard to outsmart a genius. Even if they are wrong and you are right.

Sheena wasn't sure what to do. Morris had returned with the lemons and the sugar. Sheena enlisted the help of the Snake to squeeze the lemons as quickly as possible. Once the lemons were squeezed she asked the Snake to also help stir in the sugar. Sheena set up a folding table and made a simple sign on a piece of white paper that said:

"Real Lemonade, 50 cents a glass"

Sheena taste-tested the lemonade. It was the best lemonade she had made in a very long time.

“What kind of crappy sign is that?"

“Why is it so cheap?”

“This doesn’t seem like a professional operation”

"Why do you have to say *real*? Seems fake!"

"Folks, I think we know what's happening here..." the Duck spoke to the line, in front of Sheena's lemonade stand, "It's a tale as old as time. I had a good idea, but then these carpetbaggers decided to take my idea and make a cheaper, worse version! They are selling fake lemonade!"

The Duck had poisoned the well. No one was going to order fake lemonade from the frauds when they could get real lemonade from the only person they trusted.

Sheena was disheartened. She thought she was doing something good and trying to save everyone lots of hassle and heartache. She watched as people lined up to buy the Ducks crappy lemonade. She watched everyone sip the crappy lemonade and look disappointed afterward.

"Well," Sheena said, as she looked to her ragtag assembled lemonade crew of initially disappointed customers, "We might as well enjoy ourselves."

So Sheena and Morris and the Snake, and the Skunk started drinking the lemonade they made. They didn't charge anyone for it but Sheena was still sure to reimburse Morris for that cost. As they drank the lemonade together they laughed and talked and had some camaraderie in knowing that everyone who got the bad lemonade would hate it. They even had a little game of watching people take a sip of the bad lemonade and pretend like they enjoyed it.

But some saw how happy the crew was and thought they might as well check things out at the fake 'real' lemonade stand. To their surprise the lemonade was good and the conversation and people were also nice.

Everyone who tried the lemonade from Sheena's stand wished someone had warned them when they were going to buy the Duck's lemonade. They all mentioned this to Sheena who just shrugged her shoulders, and said, "Good advice, we'll try that next time."