Larkin’s Question

Larkin is a brown-speckled lark with a small crest and soft, kind eyes. She lives on a low branch that hangs over the otters’ warm flat rock. Every evening, she reads them a story. And every evening, at the very end, she asks the same question.

One evening, Larkin read: “Turtle wanted to win the swimming race. But halfway across the pond, Turtle stopped to help a tadpole who was stuck in the weeds. Turtle came in last.”

Whyatt found the first because. “Turtle came last because he stopped to help the tadpole.”

Whynn found another. “Also because turtles are slow swimmers.”

Whyla wondered. “Maybe because Turtle didn’t really care about winning.”

Bixby sniffed for the biggest clue. “Turtle stopped halfway. That’s the big clue. He came last mostly because he stopped to help.”

Sketchley drew a picture of Turtle and the tadpole, both smiling.

And then Larkin tipped her wing forward and asked her question. “Has something like this ever happened to you?”

The otters went quiet.

Whyla spoke first. “Once, I was racing Whyatt to the rock, and I saw a baby duck that had lost its mum. I stopped to help it find her. And I lost the race.”

“How did you feel?” Larkin asked.

Whyla thought. “A bit sad that I lost. But mostly glad, inside. The baby duck found its mum.”

Larkin nodded. “So now you know what Turtle might have felt. Not just why Turtle came last, but how it felt.”

Whyatt looked at his sister in surprise. “I didn’t know you lost on purpose that day.”

“I didn’t lose on purpose,” said Whyla. “I lost because I helped.”

Everyone laughed, and a warm, close feeling settled over the rock, the way the evening sun settles over the river.

Larkin smiled. That was why she always asked her question. When you connect a story to your own life, the reasons stop being just words. They become something you understand from the inside, because you have felt it too.

So the next time you read a story and find the because, ask Larkin’s question. Has something like this ever happened to me? Then the story, and the why, will be part of you.