Wednesday's Words on a Friday
On Wednesdays, Delores,
from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls
“Words for Wednesday”.
She puts up a selection
of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.
I’m hopeless at poetry
so I always do a story.
It’s a fun challenge…why
not join in?
This week's words are:
1. boxed
2. amazed
3. fragmented
4. dice
5. flagged
6. frog
we also have "describe a rainbow to a blind person"
Which requires a lot more thought than I am capable of today....
Here is my story:
Kirsty looked around the science lab at the other students, amazed that no one else seemed to be the slightest bit panicky at Mr Petty's surprise announcement.
Today they were going to dissect a frog.
A live frog!
Sealed jars with a frog in each were being passed along the tables with each student keeping one as the tray slid along. The frogs inside were alive, moving around, looking up at them with no idea their lives would soon be over. Smaller jars with cotton balls soaked in chloroform were also passed to each student.
Kirsty glanced around again, there were too many people suddenly, no clear path to the door. She felt boxed in and began to sweat. She didn't want to do this. She couldn't do this.
Jonno on her right whispered, "yay! a slice and dice class!"
Kirsty felt a little sick and hoped she wouldn't vomit. Wasn't this sort of thing usually kept for higher grades? Medical students who needed to know how to use a scalpel? Not for kids in year 9, surely.
She tried to flag Mr Petty's attention, but he had already turned to the blackboard to list the steps they were to take.
Step one was to drop the soaked cotton ball into the jar with the frog, then put the lid back on until the frog was asleep. Or dead.
Kirsty made up her mind. She wasn't doing this. No way. She pushed away the small jar with the cotton ball and left her frog alive.
She would fail this class and she didn't care.
Her perfect A record would be fragmented and she didn't care.
When Mr Petty turned back to the class, Kirsty was at his desk waiting for him. She held up her jar with her still alive frog, then walked out of class. Back in her home room, Kirsty packed her backpack and left the school grounds.
Her parents would be horrified and she didn't care.
"I'm not a killer," she told herself. "It's only a frog, but I'm not a killer."
On her way home, Kirsty walked along beside the grassy creek and let her frog go free.
She'd face the consequences tomorrow.
Detention maybe, possibly a change in curriculum.
A chance to choose something that didn't involve killing defenceless animals.
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Oh Kirsty, I'm so with you! I absolutely refused to do Biology at school for that reason. (And yes, I'm a vegetarian for those who are about to tell me that I probably eat meat, so what's the difference). I don't even want to dissect a Freddo Frog! Although I may consider a Bertie Beetle...
ReplyDeleteNow excuse me while I go outside and check the frog spawn on my garden pond....
And me. It was a rat we were to dissect - and like Kirsty I left. Though my record wasn't as good as hers.
ReplyDeleteThis is very, very familiar. And sad.
Here is my attempt:
ReplyDelete"After years of being boxed up inside writing her blog
She stirred amazed from life how fragmented she felt
Flagged out she slumped in her chair her mind in a fog
With a roll of the dice up she leapt and tightened her belt
Knowing before she found her prince she had to find a frog
We were surposed to do this in science I was not as brave as Kirsty I just pretended I was sick that day and stayed home as did a lot of others.
ReplyDeleteMerle............
I wouldn't be able to do it either. Great story.
ReplyDeleteYay Kirsty! You go girl.
ReplyDeleteA more important lesson in life is that she doesn't have to do everything she's told to, compromising her ethics.
A little defiance and standing up for what she believed in assuages any possible self loathing later.
Nice work River.
Great story . I love Kirsty's courage to take a stand for what she believes in. A wonderful lesson.
ReplyDeleteI think I do remember once, when in perhaps Standard 6, a DEAD frog being dissected but only by the teacher. Had I been expected to dissect a live or even unconscious creature I think I too would have refused. Sometimes I believe they use replicas.
ReplyDeleteYour story though was wonderful and so full of compassion.
I can imagine Jonno being one of those frightful boys who possibly though pulling the wings off flies hilarious.
Marie; the difference there would be that you eat what you kill, not like the frogs. But that's irrelevant since you are a vegetarian. When I was in high school, frog or any other dissection was done in third year i think. Anyway, I missed it, having already left school by then. I think I'd have found it interesting.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; I'm pleased to read here that so many either walked out or would have. I missed it entirely by leaving school the year before.
Lee; that's very good. I had frogs and princes in mind, but the story wouldn't gel.
Merle; There's probably a lot of sickies taken world wide by kids who don't want to do this. I wonder if any of them had to take a make-up class and still do the dissecting?
Delores; thanks. I think I could have done it.
Vicki; a little defiance is a good thing. No sense in growing up to be yes men. Kirsty ends up taking on photography.
Manzanita; more people should take a stand I think. Too many just follow along with what they're told, as I did.
Mimsie; interesting that only a teacher did the dissecting. I think you'd learn more by doing it yourself. But perhaps that's just the way it was done back then. Or maybe there weren't enough frogs.
Jonno grows up to be a world class surgeon. He's not a bad kid at all.
In most French Flagged restaurants, I was Amazed to discover Fragmented Or Dice'd edible Frog is available in a Boxed takeaway.
ReplyDeleteIn joe bonkers banana land, cane toad is the speciality. Yuk!!
Takes me back to high school biology. I couldn't do it either.
ReplyDeleteVest; I like that! It's funny and true.
ReplyDeleteGood for Kirsty! It takes a lot of guts for a student... especially an A-student... to risk her grades by refusing to follow the teacher's orders. I hope her parents applauded her actions when she got home.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, describing a rainbow to a blind person. That's a real toughie.