The Cattle Truck

One day, when my son was four or five years old, we were heading somewhere in town when we came up behind an enclosed cattle truck. Back then, there were no car seat laws or laws demanding that you keep your little one in the back seat of your vehicle.

I side-eyed him as he leaned forward to get a better look at the cows.

“That one looked at me!” he squealed.

I smiled because he was never much of a talker, so to hear that much come from him was a joy.

The truck went straight while we turned left. I never gave the cattle truck another thought.

However, he’d been thinking about it ever since we’d first seen it, asking, “Do we get hamburgers from cows?”

I gulped, wanting to lie my way out of the question, fearing it would upset him to know that we do slaughter cows for hamburger meat.

In the end, I said, “Yes, we do.”

“Seeing those cows made me hungry,” he grinned, “Can we go to McDonald’s?”