Chosen Tapir
Tappy the Tapir was about to turn eight. He knew that he would have to make this big choice, so he went around to all his neighbors to ask them how they had made their own big choice.
“How did you make the choice?” Tappy asked Gerry the Giraffe.
“I looked up into the sky with my long, long neck, and felt it was the correct choice.”
Tappy tried to reach up to the sky, but he didn’t have a long, long neck. So he went to Alison the Alligator.
“How did you make the choice?” Tappy asked her.
“I swam really fast while thinking about it and felt it was right.”
Tappy tried to swim, but the water soon became too deep and so he went back to safety on land. Zariah the Zebra looked at him as he climbed out of the water, so he went over to ask her too.
“How did you make the choice?”
“I ran all around and felt it was good.”
Tappy tried to run all around, but his little legs wouldn’t carry him as fast as he wanted.
It was getting dark and tomorrow was the day he would have to make his decision, so he went home. His mom asked him what was wrong and he told her about his day, how he had asked each animal he came across about their big decision, tried it their way, but hadn’t received an answer.
“Well,” his mom, so wise and strong, said, “what did all of the animals choices have in common?”
“They all did something and then felt something.”
“And what have you felt today?”
“I’ve felt good about asking my question. I’ve felt confirmed in seeking an answer. It felt right.”
“And what did you do today?”
“I asked questions!”
“So maybe you need to ask the question to get the answer.”
Tappy wished his mother a good night and went to his nest to sleep. Before he went to bed, though, he asked his question.
“Should I make the decision to be baptized tomorrow?”
As he nodded off to bed, Tappy made a decision. And it felt right, and good, and correct.
The end.
I am participating in #Archtober from the ARCH-HIVE. They challenged creators to create something every day, or every other day, for the month of October and base it on a theme. I’m free writing for 30 minutes every two days based on the two-day schematic and theme rules they’ve established. So, the writing will probably not be super coherent, but it’ll be fun.
Chosen Tapir is a children’s story within the universe of Golden Deseret that encourages children to choose to be baptized. It plays off some of the anxieties and technologies used to encourage children to be baptized in contemporary Mormonism, while also letting me try my hand at writing within a genre I’m not well written in.
