The Life and Death of a Flour Sack Baby

Kim’s life began like that of any other sack of all-purpose flour. From a plethora of seeds planted in a farmer’s field, Kim grew into beautiful stalks of golden wheat, waving to and fro in the breezes blowing across the plains. At harvest time, the combines came and the grains of her soul were cut and sent to a mill to be transformed into the flour sack that would be her destiny.

Sitting proudly on the shelf, Kim waited patiently to be chosen and lovingly placed into a shopper’s cart. Then I came along. From that point forward, Kim’s life took a detour visited only by a select few.

When I entered the baking aisle Kim was merely a 10 pound sack of flour, that is until I brought her home to her new father, my son, Austin. My son's Teen Living assignment this past week was to care for a baby. Just as any new parent, Austin was required to dress, feed, change, and wake up in the middle of the night to care for his “baby”. Per the luck of the draw (literally) Austin’s “baby” was to be girl with a cleft palate. Austin named this beautifully duct-taped sack of flour Kim. He happily told everyone the story of how he “found” her on his doorstep with a note saying “Spring Break, Cancun, 2009”. Yes, the math is a little bit off.

Austin and Kim

From setting an alarm (sounding like the cry of a baby) to wake him up in the middle of the night, to taking her with him to get his haircut, Austin dutifully cared for Kim. All the while a dark side was emerging in Austin’s personality. He no longer looked at Kim as a “baby” but rather a sack of flour. Through his eyes, Kim became - chocolate chip cookies.

Austin’s cravings for cookies became almost unbearable. Until today. Austin could no longer fight the darker side of his nature. He wanted cookies and he wanted them now. Nothing could stop him.

As Austin gathered the ingredients for his cookies, Kim’s features began to show her fear. She had expected this to happen when she was sitting on the grocer’s shelf. But after being so lovingly and well tended to for a week she began to imagine a different life for herself. A life filled with love and coddling. Now she knew better. Her life was not meant to be spared after all. She wasn’t really a baby; she was just a sack of flour; a food staple to be used to satisfy the recipes of bakers everywhere.

Kim sat watching and waiting as Austin began mixing butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. It was finally her time. This was her destiny. Facing the scissors with dignity, Kim let out one last puff of white dust before being poured into the mixing bowl.

Kim’s life as a flour sack baby came to an end. She will not be missed. As I write this, the aroma of chocolate chip cookies fill the house. My stomach is rumbling as Austin and I anxiously await our first taste of what we now call “Flour Sack Baby Cookies.”

Thank you, Kim, for the gift!