Today’s Youth

Coming back from Oklahoma City is a lot like coming
home from a long weekend in Vegas: it’s long and
rough with a bit of disbelief about where you’ve been
and what you’ve seen. My attempt at sleep while
waiting in the Dallas airport for my connecting flight
was futile. Despite the uncomfortable chair that was
up against a wall, and the awkward angle of my neck to
rest my head against the wall, I closed my eyes and
tried.

It wasn’t long before two young, six-year old girls
were giggling and playing as they shared the seat next
to me. Their child innocence was refreshing and their
playful nature helped me forget the horror I
experienced in Oklahoma City. The soothing background
sounds of child laughter and playful squealing allowed
me to drift off to a surprisingly peaceful sleep.
Maybe that’s why I noticed when the sounds suddenly
stopped.

The silence was deafening.

I don’t know what compelled me, but I opened my eyes
and slowly turned my cramped neck to look at the seat
next to me. I blinked in disbelief, and immediately
wondered if I was having a bad dream or had
disturbingly been placed, by some sick glitch in the
time-space continuum, into a pedophile’s wet dream.
The two six-year old girls were making-out. Open
mouth, tongue and all. Passionately. Aghast, and
with the remnants of sleep still upon me, I was frozen
from this unsettling and unforeseen sight. Time
seemed to stop, yet the girls did not. The session
ended when the mom, with an obvious lack of concern
over losing her place in the ticket counter line,
rushed over to pull the girls apart. ‘We were just
kissing,’ the girl said as the mom removed her from
the other girl.

As they walked away, the mom imparted some advice to
her daughter that should resonate with us all: “I
know you were just kissing her, honey, but you
shouldn’t give your sister ‘movie-kisses.’”

How true. How true.