“I know a lot about dinosaurs.
My favorite is the Velociraptor.”
“Is that a big one?” I immediately regretted encouraging this boy to carry on with what was clearly going to be more information than I could…or would want to… process.
We were at a birthday party, and my little son was playing ball with a few older boys. I had been standing in the shade in a rare moment of solitude when the dinosaur boy came upon me.
He answered the question that I wished I hadn’t asked.
“No, it’s small. It’s the size of a turkey. It has a tail that’s all feathery.”
The boy was six or seven years old. His dark brown hair was neatly trimmed. He wore a golfer’s polo with a collar that fell just right, pressed tan shorts, and clean running shoes.
He continued, offering words that I did not expect to hear on a sunny Saturday.
“And they eat meat. YOU are meat.”
With that haunting thought, I took my attention elsewhere.
Three has been a challenging age this last time around.
“Shut up, Mom. I hate you.”
I thought of that Velociraptor, coming at me when my back was turned.
I know they are just words, circles and lines from the tongue. Still, I fall in defeat. I cannot stop them. I cannot stop him. I cannot stop anyone.
For the times that I stood alongside you yet could not hear what you were saying, for the times when my own thoughts were too loud to hear your words, for the times when you felt that what you had to say did not mean enough to me, I am truly sorry.
I took the three little boys to visit Sam and Emily at their new house. The drive was nearly three hours. We spent a great day in the late summer sunshine, and before we were ready to go home, night had fallen. As we drove into the darkness, the stark evening sky called up emotions from my soul as a tiny three-year-old voice.
“I see the moon.”
Indeed, it was bold and full, holding stories and mysteries of cheese and an enchanting man who lived there. This small boy, too, would know them.
“I hate you, and I love you.”
Moving from one highway to another, across an illuminated trestle bridge, into more darkness…senses reeling. I still had a vision of the string lights as they lit up the backyard at the house of my grown son, my small child, my backpack baby no longer.
We were not used to these evening drives.
“It feels like we’re racing the clouds,” piped one boy.
“You’re like a race car driver! We’re going to win,” announced the youngest.
The oldest of the little boys sat in quiet solitude, but I know he heard everything.
We drove on into the night, stripped to our senses, and I was grateful for the chance to share the space in the old black van, alongside an abandoned camp backpack, a couple of baseball mitts, and treasures from today’s trip, with these three small beings that have given me the chance to care for them, to be their mama, and to take a day’s journey in the car to visit a brother who was once this small, and who would still appreciate the wonders of the night sky.
Three hours is a long time; twenty-four years is the blink of an eye.
There was truth in what the dinosaur boy told me, whether I wanted the information or not.
Sometimes I hear you, but I don’t know what to say. Though my words are elusive, I am listening still. Your chatter confuses and overwhelms me. YOU are meat; WE are meat. Please, keep talking. Keep talking, my son. Help me face what I cannot see.
Race the clouds with me. The moon is amazing, just as you are.
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