Natural History

Four-year-old Todd espies the uncaged dinosaur looming suddenly over him.  The massive jaws swing open just beyond his head.  He screams and screams, petrified in his tracks.

He feels a massive desolation overcome him.  Then sobs, intuiting a mother’s grief.  Too awful, being torn apart.
  

But whose loss—hers?

She swoops down. 

Nuzzles him. 

Sweetly.

—Christie

(after a day at the Field Museum)