Background - I was substituting for a fifth grade class at Potowmack Elementary school and got talking to one of the fifth grade boys. He was reading a rather large, mature looking book and I was curious as to what the story was. So I drifted by him to try and catch a peek at the title. I didn’t recognize it but there was no doubt that this was an adult book. “That’s a pretty high level book you’ve got there” I said with a smile “What’cha readin?”. He was a really cute kid named Scott and he tells me that he likes to read his dad’s books and that Michael Crichton is one of his favorites. He also offers that his mom won’t let him read everything because she’s worried about the subject matter, and then he rolls his eyes at me to indicate that his mom is way over protective. I shook my head in mock agreement. Such a cute kid.
I asked him if he had read Crichton’s book called “Swarm” (the only title I could come up with at the moment). He said “no, my mom wouldn’t let me.” Again with the eye rolling. “How about “Jurassic Park? Didn’t Michael Crichton write Jurassic Park?” He said he hadn’t read that one either and didn’t know if Michael Crichton had written it or not, clearly getting annoyed with my badgering. Dropping his head, he went back to his reading and I resumed my classroom drifing, laughing at myself because I couldn’t remember who wrote Jurassic Park. Now it was bugging me. I was almost sure it was Michael Crichton.
Class ended and I gathered up the little darlings and walked them down to the music room and then, after music, they would head off to P.E. That meant that I had an entire hour to eat my lunch and read my Uncle John’s Bathroom reader, “Uncle John Plunges into the Universe” (Uncle John works real hard on these titles).
S.C.O.U.T.- I pick up where I left off a few days before, on the bottom of page 100, and the very first thing my eyes settle on is...
“Is it true that scientists dug up an oversized “velociraptor” after Steven Spielberg created one for Jurassic Park?
I get that tingle down my spine and continue reading,
“Actually a large raptor was discovered two years before the release of Jurassic Park, but supposedly the all-powerful and all-seeing Spielberg didn’t know it. He just took the raptors that Michael Crichton had used in the book of the same name….
You could have blown me over with a feather. I was glad I had the classroom to myself because I was so stunned I must have looked like I‘d seen a ghost. It felt like I had asked a question and the answer had been express mailed to me. What a strange case of uncanny timing. Was it a premonition? Was it just a coincidence? Did I “attract” the answer to my question, or was it a tug on the shirt from “the powers that be” to remind me that I’m not alone (i.e. just part of a cosmic conversation)?
I’m still working on the answer to this one, but now if I could just get an answer to one of my most pressing questions. It has to do with the winning lottery numbers for this coming Friday…hehehe! Come on Uncle John, help me out here!!
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