Hookers at the library

We all love hearing those hilarious things that children say that make so much sense to them, but mean something entirely different to us.  At least, sometimes we do.  At other times, we wish our children would choose better places in which to share the way they see the world.  Today we were at the library and my son was working hard at putting a train together.  He even had a new little friend there to help him.  She would find a train piece and pass it to him, and he would get them all buckled up and straight on the track.  At one point, my son looks up to me and says, "where are the other hookers?"

.......silence....

"Mom, where are the other hookers?"

"Ummm, excuse me? I'm not sure I understood what you said."

"Where. Are. The. Other. Hookers?"

Oh dear, I'm thinking.  Either this girl has just informed him about a corrupt and terrible concept in our world, or at the least, my son is ranting about hookers to all of the children section of the library.  Whispering, I tried to ask him again, "I'm not exactly sure what you mean.... could you quietly tell me what you're talking about?"--looking around to make sure no one else was grimacing at my son while he talked about not-child-appropriate occupations in the play area.

"I'm looking for the pieces that hook on to these train pieces.  See, like this one...??"  And as he shows me a train piece that clearly is intended to fit another piece, I suddenly understood.  Sadly, I had no better name on the top of my head for the piece that would connect.  "Hooker" seemed suitable.  And yet not.  Very not.

So, I did all I could do, I told him there were no pieces that I could find that fit on to that piece, but that I would look for it.  In the meantime, he should focus his energy elsewhere--to the pieces that didn't need anything attached to them.  Hopefully that would prevent any more discussion of hookers in the library.

I think we escaped any potential problems unscathed, though, I'm not 100% sure.  The father of the girl did come up to me soon afterwards and gave me an awkward introduction.  In fact, his entire conversation with me was extremely awkward.  My thinking is that either he overheard my son's mention of hookers, or, he's just an awkward kind of guy.  I'm not sure which option I'd rather be true.