This post is part of SoCS: http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-514/ The prompt is Body and I have been counseled to think about it a minute and maybe a number of things will come to me. As some of you know the rules state that the writing needs to flow without much editing. No need to think too long I think I have it.
Body by John W. Howell
“Ok students. Today we are going to begin our exploration of the human body.”
“Uh. Mr. Turner?”
“Yes Cynthia what is it?”
“I’m really uncomfortable with the word body.”
“Excuse me?”
“The word body bothers me. I don’t have a very good self-image of my body.”
“Cynthia, I’m sorry to hear that, but we aren’t talking about your body we are going to learn about body parts and their function.”
“Mr. Turner?”
“Yes Cynthia what now?”
“I am uncomfortable with the terms body parts and function. You see my body parts have long been kept under cover and I don’t want to expose them now. Also I think functions should be private.”
“Cynthia. You are making it difficult to conduct this class. No one wants to see your body parts. We are going to look at the parts of someone you don’t know. The body parts will be pictures. We won’t even be using real body parts. As far a function is concerned I am talking about how the part works and not about private things. Can we proceed?”
“Well I guess, but I am still a little uncomfortable.”
“Ok class now that Cynthia is somewhat comfortable the first part of the body I want to discuss is the heart. Please open your folder to page three and we’ll begin.”
English: Illustration of the pain pathway in René Descartes’ Traite de l’homme (Treatise of Man) 1664. The long fiber running from the foot to the cavity in the head is pulled by the heat and releases a fluid that makes the muscles contract. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is in response to the Community Story Board Prompt for this week: Tomorrow by Julian Froment. You can see Julian’s here; http://goo.gl/ujGp3c
“I said I can’t believe you forgot about picking me up.”
“Aw honey I didn’t forget.”
“I don’t know what you call it then. I waited at the airport for an hour and no you.”
“I know, I know. It’s just─”
“Just what you dead beat?”
“Well it’s just I made a mistake that’s all. I thought your flight was tomorrow. ”
“Mistake. I would say leaving your wife at the airport so she has to call a cab cause your sorry ass can’t answer the phone is more than a mistake. I told you when I left when the flight was. Here’s the damn schedule right on the table where I left it.”
“I wasn’t home to answer the phone.”
“Tell me something else I don’t know. Who were you with? That slut of a sister-in-law of yours?”
“Naw I was not with Teresa. I was at the doctors.”
“The doctors? What the hell you doing at the doctors.”
“This pain in my chest is worse.”
“Pain what pain?”
“I told you I had a pain.”
“You mean that pain you mentioned a month ago?”
“Yeah that’s it.”
“You said it was cause you got hit on the job. What did the doctor say?”
“Tumor.”
“What? What ya mean tumor?”
“Yeah he said they need to operate tomorrow. If not I would have to wait a month and he thought that might be too late. I told him I couldn’t tomorrow cause you needed to be picked up from the airport.”
“No wait. Call the doctor and tell him you can do it tomorrow.”
“Too late. His office called and told me before you came in that they had another in my place.”
I watched this old guy struggle with the heavy outer door and finally make it into the bank. He crossed the marble foyer and looked like he was going to end up at my cage. I could see he was dressed in some baggy pants, a checkered shirt, and was wearing a hounds tooth fabric hat like the ones I’ve seen on old guys driving a Mercury Marquis in the fast lane at about thirty miles an hour. He was carrying what looked like an ecologically friendly supermarket shopping bag. Sure enough he came up to my position.
“Can I help you sir?”
“You look like you are able to do that.”
“Excuse me sir?”
“Well you asked if you could help me and I made the judgment that you looked able. Now if you had said, ‘may I help you sir?’ I would have said ‘Yes you can.’”
“Yes sir. I get it. Bad grammar on my part.”
“Don’t feel alone son. I hear bad grammar all the time.”
“Yes sir. May I help you?”
“My name is Frost. Jack Frost.”
“Yes sir. . . er Jack Frost?”
“Yeah kid and before you go on, let me say I’ve heard them all over the last eighty years.”
“I’m sure you have sir. What can I do for you?”
“I would like to make a withdrawal and I don’t have any of the forms.”
“No problem sir. I can help you right here. I’ll fill them out for you. Do you have an account number?”
“No I don’t. Can’t remember where I put the darn card with numbers on it.”
“Here I’ll just look up your account under your name. Could I have your address as well?”
“Sure it’s. . . Damn I can’t remember it either.”
“Oh sir don’t worry, I’ll just look up your name and then maybe there will be only one Jack Frost.”
“Yeah I don’t imagine there will be a lot of them.”
“Okay sir. I don’t seem to be able to find your name in our system.”
“Well that is real strange isn’t it? I could’ve sworn I had an account here.”
“Looks like you don’t. Maybe it is another bank that looks like this one.”
“Yeah you may be right. At my age everything pretty much looks the same.”
“Can I help you any further?”
“Yeah you can. As long as I am here why don’t you open your cash drawer and pull out all the money and pass it to me.”
“You must be joking sir. You know it is a federal offense to rob a bank.”
“So who’s robbing? I am making a withdrawal like I said I wanted to do.”
“But sir you have no money in this bank so you are taking someone else’s money which is robbery.”
“Have you touched the silent alarm button?”
“No. I don’t think you are serious and you should just turn around and leave. No one has to know.”
“Good. Now what do you think I have in this bag that I am eventually going to put the money in?”
“I have no idea sir.”
“Does dynamite ring a bell with you?”
“Dynamite?”
“Shush. Do you want it to go off?”
“No for heaven’s sake.”
“Here take a look. What do you see?”
“Well some sticks and wires.”
“That’s right. Notice this wire that is wrapped around my finger? That’s the one that makes this whole shebang go bang if you catch my drift. Even if I drop the bag the wire will pull the trigger, so be real careful and give me the money.”
“Yes sir. I must say I hope you are very proud of yourself by coming in here and scaring me to death not to mention putting everyone at risk.”
“Yeah sure. I’m a bad one alright. Keep shoveling the money.”
“There is no more in my drawer.”
“Okay so you need to give me about five minutes to clear the bank. You don’t want to be responsible for people getting hurt if the bomb inadvertently goes off. After five minutes you can call in the Marines for all I care.”
“One more question before you go.”
“Yeah what?”
“Your name. Is it really Jack Frost?”
“Kid, I hope you have a strong person in your life.”
“Why’s that.”
“You have to be the most gullible person on Earth and you need someone to watch out for you. See ya around.”
