DO YOU HAVE A TAIL?

Do you have a tail?

It was a question asked in all innocence. The expression on the little girl's face made it evident that she was not attempting to be funny. The place, time, and person being questioned made it a very serious moment. That’s when things are the funniest, wouldn’t you agree?! I mean, it’s almost like remembering a funny incident at the funeral of a friend, and getting the giggles! People looking on don’t understand your response at such a sobering time.

Let’s rewind the story a bit so that we can build up to the time of the question.

There was a pastor of a rural church, he had a wife and two children. Their oldest child was a son, who at the time was about 7 years old. The daughter was about 4 and very active!

There was one Sunday morning drive to church that the daughter’s 4-year-old wisdom was revealed. Living in the country it’s not surprising to be driving along and seeing a small animal dead in the road. Wild animals simply run out at the worst time. The pastor and his family had lately been seeing a lot of Opossums deceased. It was a normal thing for the 4-year-old to see the poor creature and say, “Daddy, what was that?” to which the reply was, “It was an Opossum”. This question and the answer had been repeated on many drives. On the particular drive to church that Sunday morning the usual question came up: “Daddy, what was that in the road?” however, this time the father answered, “It was a rabbit.”

The 4-year-old daughter looked very sternly at her father and announced, “Well, it’s an Opossum now!”

Makes sense! To her, everything dead in the road had to be an Opossum!

She was full of questions! Sometimes the answer was, shall we say, difficult!

“Do you have a tail?” were the words that came out of her mouth in the foyer of that little country church. The one being question was a man who attended the church and knew the pastor and his family fairly well. He looked down at the 4-year-old and smiled, saying, “What did you say?”

“Do you have a tail?” He realized that she was serious in her inquiry, but didn’t know how or what to answer. Nothing in his brain told him what was in her brain! He cleared his throat and stepped beyond her into the sanctuary of the building and made his way over to his wife. His wife noticed that he was flustered and asked what was wrong. He pointed towards the child and reported the question that he had been asked hoping for some clarity.

His wife looked past him at the 4-year-old and then back to her husband weighing the words of the question. Then, quickly, a smile spread across her face which soon turned to giggles! She suspected that she knew the answer. She went to the pastor’s wife and pulled her aside into a private area and told her about the “interview” that had been held. Immediately the pastor’s wife’s face blushed red!

Recently in the pastor’s house, the active little girl had happed to see her brother getting dressed. Or, should I have said, in a state of undress! She asked her mother why her brother had something that she didn’t have. It was “life lesson time.” The mother explained that Daddy and brother were both boys, and what she had seen were “boy parts.” No parent ever really wants to get into deep explaining if a simple explanation will be accepted. The 4-year-old said, “Oh, okay,” and walked away.

“Do you have a tail?” In her 4-year-old mind, the only anatomy that resembled what she had seen was an animal’s “tail”!

Now the man was blushing, as his wife explained what the child was asking!

You will have to decide which part I played in this scenario! It’s still embarrassing to this day!