The Sad Tale of the Second Loaf of Bread

The Sad Tale of the Second Loaf of Bread

(By the way, the first loaf was delicious!)

Before we left for the zoo I looked at the second loaf of bread, sitting on a cooling rack, which was balanced on top of three bowls on our table. The bowls were necessary because the rack was actually just an oven rack with no legs, so the bowls held it up off the table. This was also a good idea to protect the bread from the every present ants. As I admired the bread, I saw one very adventurous ant climbing around the bowls, and I pondered: will this guy make it up to the bread? I watched and sure enough, he scampered up the bowl, onto the wire rack, and right to the bread. I congratulated myself for being so observant, and I came up with the next plan. I got a clean grocery bag, put the bread inside the bag, and placed that on top of the cooling rack, on top of the bowls. I didn’t tie it, however, because the bread was still a bit warm and I didn’t want it to get soggy with condensation.

We returned from the zoo, hot and sticky and having experienced enough of God’s creation in the form of animals and insects for one day. We walked in through the door and Jacob was the first to notice that the bag with the bread was rustling around. Jacob quickly concluded the sad truth: there was a lizard in the bread! Jacob moved directly to the bread, touched the bag, and a large lizard scampered away at lightning speed. Jacob was a bit disgusted in a very vocal way. I took the optimistic approach and came up with the theory that the lizard did not actually reach the bread, that it was just outside the bag, trying unsuccessfully to get in. This theory made me happy for a minute or two, until we saw the bag twitch again! We looked inside the bag…only the loaf of bread was visible. Then Jacob reached in and lifted out the bread. There it was, a little slimy lizard, looking more like a salamander, enjoying the nice environment nestled under the bread. Yuck! This creature has the run of the entire world around here, why choose my bread? I should just consider this the ultimate endorsement of my bread. Maybe I should make that my new bread slogan: The Favorite of Lizards in Siantar!