Unhealthy Coping Mechanism

Chapter 4

Harriet and Sam chewed on the last of her share of the butter cookies as they finished up their picnic in the park. He stared at the crumbs clinging to his fingers as sparrows hopped around on the acorn-littered ground. "Do you think they'd like to have some?"

She handed him a napkin. "That much sugar is probably way too much for their tiny little hearts to handle, sweetie. They'd have a bad case of sugar jitters from now until January."

Sam accepted her explanation with a nod. "I bet they wish they were still dinosaurs. Then they could eat all the cookies they wanted! Isn't that right, Dad?"

He made the pachycephalosaurus dip its head and let out a soft growl of agreement.

His real father was sprawled across the couch back home, snoring up a storm. He'd barely budged since coming home from the museum the day before, only dragging himself out of the living room to eat and give Harriet a kiss when she shared a cookie with him.

"I don't doubt that," she said. "Speaking of dinosaurs, how was the museum yesterday?"

"It was awesome! There was this really cool paleo... pally..." He threw his hands in the air when the right word refused to come to him. "Dinosaur person. She even let me have a fossil!" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Dad thinks she got it from the gift shop, but she said she dug it up herself."

He proudly presented a small, serrated tooth. She'd seen countless teeth just like it in sundries stores in Hawaii, right next to the starfish magnets and cans of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. That didn't mean Frank had to be such a party pooper about it, though. "Wow, honey, that's amazing! You'll have your own little collection before you know it." She packed away their picnic, leaving only a sack of birdseed outside the basket.

Sweat dripped down their backs as they strolled along a path lined by pecan trees. Harriet kept a firm grip on Sam's hand, pulling him closer to her side whenever he wandered toward the squirrels scampering in the grass. This was far more often than she would have liked, not that she could blame Sam too much. Those glorified rats kept twitching their tails with a teasing confidence as they sat nibbling on their nuts.

The ducks and geese paddling in the pond looked just as comfortable despite the sheet of algae covering the water's murky surface. The only other animals that dared to break through the greenness were the turtles, and even they clung to half-rotten logs as they sunbathed.

"Wanna do the first throw?" Harriet asked as she handed Sam the birdseed.

"Hey ducks," he yelled, "come and get it!" He hurled the seeds into the water so hard a mother duck gave a startled quack of alarm as they pelted her offspring.

Despite the rough start, it wasn't long before a peeping parade of ducklings clustered around the shore. "There you go," Sam said as he tossed them another, gentler handful. He offered the sack of seeds to his mom.

She chuckled as the biggest duckling chased after one of his smaller siblings, not even noticing as the tiniest of the bunch swooped in to snatch the seeds with a happy shake of her tail feathers. Between the adorable ducklings and the breeze dancing through the trees, it was hard to imagine a more pleasant way to spend a day at the park.

That is, unless you happened to be a goose.

The honking flock descended upon the ducks like a thundering storm cloud. Wings slapped the water as the geese fought to gobble up the seeds.

Sam leaped away from the edge of the pond as a gander snapped at him. Its bright orange beak clamped on his shirt. "She's half T-Rex!" he screamed as he struggled to free the fabric from the ferocious goose. The goose yanked its head back, nearly dragging him off his feet as his tennis shoes slid through the mud.