Challenge #01697-D236: Monstrophilia
[about a six year old]
"You must admit, her enthusiasm [for horrible monstrosities of nature] is quite charming."
"You mispronounced 'alarming'." -- RecklessPrudence
Pari was six and freaking loved dinosaurs. There is something about the age of six that makes children magnetically attracted to dinosaurs, and nothing can be done about it. However, in Pari's case, she was obsessed with paleontology. She was not yet a strong reader, but learned to sound things out by pronouncing the greco-roman names of her favourite beasts.
She got sent home for excavating the sand pit. Never mind that she found fourteen previously-lost toys, five pairs of underpants, and the fragments of at least one binkie. And the next month, her father allowed her to excavate a patch of the backyard. Allegedly to keep her out of such trouble at school.
Pari could tell the layers of soil she dug and, though excited to find the remains of a previous owner's parrot, determined that it was a recent interment and was even able to point out where the soil had been rearranged. It was her dream to find a real dinosaur all of her own. And in the meantime, she learned to read all the complicated words before she got to the easy ones meant for her age.
She would read anything about dinosaurs, even if it took her forever. She would read about paleontology and how the detective-work of scientists put together increasingly accurate depictions of what creatures looked like from astoundingly small clues. And every night, she drifted off to sleep from scientific journals about the most recent discoveries in the field. All dredged from the internet by her loving father, who never saw anything wrong with pursuing a passion.
For arts and crafts, she made a scarily accurate and accurately scary velociraptor out of assorted supplies. It was life size and its eyes seemed to follow observers around the room. At which point, her teacher asked her father in for a concerned interview.
Mr Fawkes said, "You must admit, her enthusiasm for them is quite charming." He loved her hard work on her Velociraptor. Which had to stay inside of a cage because the other children in her class were terrified of it.
"I think you mispronounced 'alarming," said Mrs Dewsbury.
Mr Fawkes went on a half-hour diatribe about how passions can grow and change the world if they're given a chance. About how every living being had the right to pursue a thing they loved until they no longer enjoyed the metaphorical chase.
And since he was so passionate about it, Mrs Dewsbury had nothing more to say than an extremely optimistic, "Well, maybe she'll grow out of it."
Other children grew out of dinosaurs. Not Pari.
She loved them for all of her life. And became a paleontologist. And invited Mrs Dewsbury, and all the teachers who prayed she would grow out of it, to the unveiling of her newly discovered species. Pariasaurus Fawkeseii.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / AlienCat]
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