Thoughts Of A Child Part 2

(Two years ago, I started this series but never finished it.  The first part is here.)

The family sat down to eat dinner. "Daddy, can I read my book to you?  It's my homework so I have to read it to someone."

"Sure, sweetie. After dinner." He turned to Melanie. "How was your day?"

"Busy, but great. We finished up at church and are ready for Easter." She contemplated asking her husband why he was late getting home, but decided not to press him.

"I had a bear of a day today," Bill volunteered. "On the way home, I got pulled over. I was doing twelve over...a lousy 12 miles over the speed limit and she gave me a ticket. I was doing 67 in a 55. The ticket is a hundred and twenty-six dollars. One hundred and twenty-six lousy dollars!!!  Can you believe it?"

Madison interrupted, "is a hundred dollars a lot, Daddy? That's a lot of money, huh." Bill had almost forgot the children were listening.

"Yes, it is a lot of money. But I have to pay it. That's what happens when you do something you shouldn't do. Daddy broke the law, and now I have to pay." It wasn't really what he wanted to say. He wanted to say, "what the @&$#$? This isn't fair, I didn't realize it was a 55. Others were zipping past and they didn't get stopped." But he didn't.  He kept is cool for the sake of his children.

Zach jumped into the conversation. "Dad, you got a ticket from a girl?"

"Yes, son. It was a female police officer." He winked at Zach.

"Daddy, that lady policeman was a mean lady."

Before Madison could go any further, Bill turned to his wife. He was exhausted and didn't want to think about the ticket or his arduous day. He wanted to relax.

"So, is your sister coming over Sunday? And what are we having for Easter dinner?"

"Yes, Nancy and the kids will be here. I had planned to have ham, but the grocery store had lamb on sale. So I bought a leg of lamb." As soon as the words slipped out, Melanie knew what was coming. Her eyes immediately scanned the face of her daughter. Just as she thought.  Madison's eyes filled with tears and her face was sad.  Melanie wondered how she could help her little girl make sense of this. She almost wished they lived on a farm. Maybe if they butchered their own animals or lived back in the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder this wouldn't be so hard.  Hunting and killing animals would be an every day occurrence of survival.