Scary Stuff

"...one eye was tomato red, the other hung over his cheek, attached by a thin thread of tissue. His face looked like the inside of that tomato - red and mushy. One arm hung loosely from his shoulder, hanging onto that joint by a tendon. His left leg leaned right at a disturbing angle, the foot shoeless, sockless and dripping blood. ”

Everyone in the lecture hall looked up from their phones, those phones they’d tried to hide in backpacks, in purses, in hoodies. Nothing on the internet compared to the word pictures the professor was painting.

“So what happened to this unfortunate person? I described someone in a desperate situation,” Professor Milford stated. He knew the details, but was curious as to how the class would explain this.

No one moved in the hall. Nobody said a word.

“No one? Not one guess? Where are your imaginations? Car wreck? Fight with a few bullies? Animal attack?”

After some long moments, Professor Milford pacing all the while, a lone hand went up.

“Finally. What’s the story?”

“It’s an alien attack. This man was in the way as aliens came to Earth.”

Professor Milford shook his head. “Sit down. Aliens! Why do you folk think that first?”

Another hand raised.

“Okay, tell me what you think.”

“I think it was an unfortunate incident with a pair of scissors.”

Snickering from the hall.

“Oh really. How would someone practically kill themselves with those?”

The student proceeded to give graphic detail of someone being attacked by a magic pair of scissors.

“Now that’s even harder to believe than aliens. Sit down. Focus on reality.”

Professor had their undivided attention.

“The truth is this man jumped out of a plane without a parachute and hit a pine tree on the way down. Now that’s scary.”


W/C 299