Brenda Lee and Gracie Allen

 Brenda Lee and Gracie Allen in the bubble wrap of Uncle Albert's mind 

    “Brenda Lee,” Uncle Albert said. [See here.]

     Pause. I’m thinking.

     I’m still thinking. “Not Connie Francis?” I ask.

     “No. . . . Hell, no.”

     “Not ‘the chicken and the egg’?”

     “No, that one is solved.”

     Pause. I’m thinking. I say, “By whom? And how?”

     “I don’t know who solved it. Maybe I did, though more likely I read it somewhere.” 
     Pause.

     The pause lengthens.
     Until I give in.
      “Are you going to share?” I ask him.

     “What?”

     “The solution.” I look at him. He doesn't look back. “To the ‘the chicken and the egg.’”

     “Actually, there are two.”

     Pause. This is like pulling hen’s teeth, I think. “Yes?”

     “If you accept Darwin’s theory of evolution, the egg must come first, laid by the immediate forebear of the chicken.”

     “That makes sense, I guess.”

     “If you are a creationist, the chicken comes first. See Genesis 1:21 – God creates whales and every water creature and ‘every winged fowl according to its kind.’ et vidit Deus quod esset bonum.”

     “‘Say ‘goodnight,’ Gracie,” I said.

     “Brenda,” Uncle Albert said. “Lee.”

07.28.16