Robert and the Stork

January 8, 2022. No. 121

-Mommy, where do children come from? - Robert asked his mother.

Robert was about 5 years old when he first asked that question in his life. It is at that age when everything seems strange and they tend to ask how much others see and do. The why of things should never be hidden from a child.

His mother stared at him, opened her eyes a little, and put the spoonful of soup that she had prepared for him on top of the plate. She realized that she wasn't ready for that question yet. She couldn't use the old sayings, the ones that are worn out by everyone. She was sure Robert couldn't know for sure where the little children came from, but he wasn't going to buy into the story that it was a stork that left them in the crib at night. But she couldn't tell him the whole truth either, it was too much for such a young age.

-Where did you get that from? - She replied to break the silence and avoid the withering look of her son waiting for an answer.

-The teacher was very pot-bellied, swollen. Every week she was getting fatter and fatter. - Said the boy, while he raised his hands in the air and filled his mouth with air to simulate a person overweight. - I stopped coming to school for a while and today she came skinny, skinny mommy and she had a loaded, small and crying girl. He says it was his daughter. The whole classroom looked at her with their mouths open, no one paid attention to the girl, everyone fixed their gaze on how quickly the teacher lost weight. She told us that she had exercised and that the stork had brought her the girl. Don't tell me it was a stork, you to mommy! - Said the boy standing up and getting a little alarmed. The mother looked at him without saying a word, she had never seen her child try to decipher something so complex. - There is something strange in all this - I continue - We all in the classroom know that the stork thing is not true, no stork would be able to fly with a girl of that size, the girl mommy is not very big, no, but I don't think that the stork could fly with that weight.

The mother starts laughing at once. She could not imagine that at that age and her son wanted to know everything related to human reproduction.

"Mommy," the child continued, affectionately sticking to his mother, flattering her as only he know how to do. - Are you going to tell me what happened to the teacher? Does she lose all that belly and suddenly she has a girl who was brought to her by a stork? Besides, with how difficult it is to lose weight, I see you that you're getting fat like her - Putting his hand on his mother's belly that was beginning to protrude over the dress. - Could it be that you will also have a child? - The mother takes his other hand and puts it next to the other on top of the dress. And shakes her head affirming the question previously asked.

A happy tear falls on her cheek and she thanks God for having such a smart child. She is sure that his brother who is on the way will also be smart like Robert and that at some point in his life, when his childhood and innocence become so fragile and he wants to know everything, the question will be repeated, and by then, and she will have an elaborate better answer.

2 more days...