After School

After School

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America... Mom? What’s an allegiance?”

“It means loyalty.”

“What does loyalty mean?”

“Sticking up for someone, sort of.”

“So... what is pledge?”

“It’s like a promise. You promise.”

“Oh, so it’s not like the furniture cleaner?”

“No! Did you think it was all this time?”

“Yeah, I thought it was like we were cleaning the flag with our eyes. Like cleaning all the stars and the stripes. I just didn’t know what the allegiance was, I thought maybe it was something else.”

“Like what?”

“Well it could be some part of our eyes, or maybe some other part of our body like the part that we were covering with our hand.”

“So, all this time you thought you, and the rest of the class, were mentally cleaning the flag every day with some part of your body? Didn’t you think that was funny?”

“Well, I thought it was nice. A lot of things are funny when you’re a kid. You get used to it.”

“You, my child, are truly a unicorn.”

“What’s a unicorn?”

“I’m a little afraid to tell you.”