Chickens on Earth

As a child, Jared owned the 1996 edition of the Scholastic Children's Dictionary. More like a mini encyclopedia than a true dictionary, he browsed through it often, not just when he needed to look up a particular word.

At the end of the dictionary was an index, much like any reference book's index.

In his earliest days of owning the book, Jared didn't know exactly what the index was. He saw words and numbers paired together and thought they were some kind of reference information.

In the car one day, he discovered a particular pairing that stood out: “chicken......93.”

“Did you know,” he asked Spephen, “that there are only 93 percent of chickens on Earth?”

Spephen gave him a strange look through the rear view mirror. “What?” he asked.

“It says right here,” Jared said. “There are only 93 percent of chickens on Earth.”

“Uh... so where are the other 7 percent? In space?” Spephen replied with a laugh.

Jared didn't understand what was funny. It was right there in the dictionary. To this day, he has not necessarily heard any information to counter that belief.  ❐

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