Jack asked me a big question today.
The childcare center I work at has a TON of cookie cutters. I wouldn't be kidding if I said there were more than 100, with each design having two or three replicas. Flowers, stars, and bears are the common ones but there are also weird ones that are shaped like apples and pikachu. I guess the boss here is really big on making little kids happy when making cookies because our manager also gives us bonuses if we find and buy designs that haven't been covered already.
That morning, I was at a small cafe (my new favorite morning place since I've started avoiding the bakery Quentin works at) and ran into dinosaur cookie cutters. T-rexes and brachiosauruses and pterodactyls all shoved in a plastic bag selling for only $2.50. Strangely, the center doesn't have any of those yet, so I bought them. I showed them to my manager who promised me a $25 bonus on my next paycheck, and then I told the kids we were making cookies today.
Now Jack, he LOVES dinosaurs. So when I showed everyone the new cookie cutters, he got so excited he literally peed his pants. I had to take him to the adjoining laundry room and get him into a new pair of pants. That was disgusting. But while I was doing so, he asked, "Lea, I was wondering. Why did God make dinosaurs?"
"Uh, why do you ask?" The answer that was in my mind, was one that my parents and Sunday school teachers had told me: existence of dinosaurs proved there was life before humanity. Oh, and universal death (which will eventually be the case with humanity). There was no way I was going to explain death to a five-year-old, much less of the apocalyptic magnitude.
"I was just wondering, that's all. God seems so nice, why would He make big, scary animals?"
"Well, you see," I said, making up the story as I talked, "the earth used to be one big rock. So God made dinosaurs to stomp around on earth and make littler rocks that we get to build houses with today."
"Uh-huh. Then why did He kill them off?"
"Wow," I choked. What a blunt kid. What have his parents been teaching him?! "Because if they kept stomping around, the earth would just be millions and billions of little rocks, and we can't live on little rocks, now, can we?"
Jack just looked at me while I threw his ruined pants into the half-full laundry basket and washed my hands violently with soap.
"Any more questions?" I asked, my hands burning under the hot water.
"You're lying," Jack said angrily, jumping off the table I had seated him on.
"What?"
"You're lying. Dad said God killed dinosaurs off 'cause He got bored and thought humans would be funner."
"Well, that could be." I'm telling you, when his parents come, there is going to be a smackdown.
"I don't know why grown-ups lie, you're jerks for lying and telling us kids not to lie, you stupid jerks," Jack yelled before turning around and slamming the door after him. It was suddenly very quiet although I could still hear the kids yelling and laughing in the main room's kitchen. I dried my hands and then stared at the laundry basket, contemplating if I should wash them.
Next time, I decided. And then I left the laundry room to help Jack make his dinosaur cookies.
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