Are they real?

I love working with children, they're hilarious, insightful, honest, and they love with no strings attached. I love their simplicity and curiousity. I've been subbing in to drive the bus for a teacher who had surgery and is unable to for a few months. So everyday at noon I bring little Ella to school, she's in kindergarden and loves to hear herself talk. Friday, I get in the bus and she says "I have a question for you." I say back, "I have an answer for you." She asks, "What I'm wondering is, bad guys that have guns and kill people and stuff, are they real and... where do they live?" I love the innocence of her question, not really asked out of fear but more just out of curiousity. I wish I could tell her, like monsters, and aliens, and big foots that indeed they are not real but made out of man's imagination like the other creatures. Unfortunately Ella, they are very real. Oh how I wish they weren't! I wish there were no bad guys in this world who killed... and I long for the day when I am in Heaven, and there are no more tears or pain. But Ella they are very real. While it seems a simple question and answer - it's implications are deep and substantial and begs me to think about the real bad guys out there, and causes me to anxiously wait for the days when there won't be any more bad guys.