[ TT ] `` Am I a monster ? '' The child asked .

`` Mommy, am I a monster?'' 
 
 I stopped immediately, knife hovering above the food I was chopping. If I found out who was saying things to my boy.... 
 
 I took a moment to breathe in, and set the knife down. Wiping my hands on my dishcloth, I knelt to be at eye level with him. Already, his soft brown eyes were swimming with tears, and his rosy cheeks felt hot to the touch as I took his face in my hands. 
 
 `` Sweetheart, has someone been talking to you?'' 
 
 He bit his lower lip, then nodded. `` Andrew.'' 
 
 `` The bully at preschool?'' 
 
 `` Yeah. He called me a bad name,'' Noah sniffled, wiping at his nose, struggling to keep the tears at bay. 
 
 Only four years old. Four years old, and grappling with the question that would plague the rest of his life. 
 
 `` Of course you're a monster,'' I reassured him. I pulled him close to me and stroked his hair. `` You will always be a monster.'' 
 
 `` How?'' he mumbled into my shoulder. 
 
 I pulled back so he could see my face. `` Look at me.'' 
 
 He tilted his chin and met my gaze. 
 
 `` What does Mommy look like to you?'' 
 
 `` Purple eyes and snake hair,'' he said. `` But my eyes are brown, and my hair is just hair.'' The tears threatened to return. 
 
 `` And Daddy has brown eyes and straight hair, too,'' I reminded him. `` And your cousin Jordan has claws and fur, and your teacher looks like a human, but with a tail.'' I smiled. `` Noah, every monster looks different. Being a monster is n't about being born with snakes for hair or with claws. It's about being a part of our family. The Monster family.'' 
 
 `` And you chose me?'' He smiled back at me now, the familiar story comforting him. 
 
 `` And we chose you. When you were just a little thing, smaller than a dragon egg, we took you home from the hospital because your tummy mom was too sick.'' 
 
 `` And now I have two moms,'' he recited. 
 
 `` And now you have two moms,'' I agreed. `` One day, when you are older, if you still feel like you are n't a `` real'' monster, we can help. You could get claws or fangs put in, if it will make you feel better. But you are still growing, and I need you to be brave a little longer. Okay, bud?'' 
 
 His lips tightened with determination, and he nodded. `` Okay.'' 
 
 `` Now go clean up your toys,'' I said as I gently pushed him toward the living room. `` It's roasted chimera stuffed with mandrake for dinner.'' 
 
 `` Yum!'' he shouted as he ran away to pick up his toys. 
 
 I returned to chopping the mandrake root. How long before he had more questions? Would the tummy mom/heart mom speech last for many more years? 
 
 And when he learned his father was a human who attacked a group of monster younglings, what then? 
 
 The image of his poor mother was always there, swimming before my eyes. Pathetically thin from the drugs, she held out the bundle of baby and begged me to take him before it was too late. Before her boyfriend came home. 
 
 I blinked the memory away and opened the oven. Dinner was almost ready, and I had a family to feed.
