Peculiar Poinsetta #10

Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, there was a school bus stop. And everyday students would wait for the bus to go to school. Each student would get ready for the day. Some did there homework, others talked about who they would sit with at lunch, and others just read. Natalie was one of the readers. She wanted to be an oceanographer, and the best place to start was by reading, that is, until she could get to Sea World. A little later, students piled one after one into the school bus, and Natalie was left alone. Another little while later, another bus, which was shorter came through the dusty road. As the ramp was lowered to pick her up, she imagined it was a crane, coming to take her out of the Submersible, (Alvin the one who became famous for discovering the Titanic), where she had just seen strange and wonderful sites. You see, in the deep ocean, no one can walk, even if they tried…the pressure would crush them, so you have to dive down with special equipment to protect yourself. It is kinda like when knights wear armor to protect themselves from the dragon they encounter.

A little while before, Natalie had encountered a fish. This fish was one of the miraculous creatures of the deep, dark ocean. With a bioluminescent markings all the way down his body-it made him glow in the dark and flash fantastic patterns. He had long, sharp teeth and a huge dorsal fin that made him look like he had come from the age of the dinosaurs. But, the difference in this fish is that he was HUGE. Because of the pressure and temperature constraints most animals in the great deep, Natalie knew, were smaller creatures. She had seen it in a NOVA program.

As the USD 234 bus came into the city, two cops were eating their doughnuts in a patrol car. “Here some the short bus” one snickered to the other. “Meh, I try not to look at the droolers, it makes me depressed.”

The fish had nosed around Alvin, jarring the incredibly expensive machine, and freaking Natalie out. Before going safe, she decided to give the fish on last chance, and took some more pictures with the submersible equipment. It took just a flcik of her finger to flash some more photos. Finally the fish turned around and she could see it head long. It had human eyes. Big blue ones, that were expressing the same amount of fear as she was. They stared at each other for a long while, wondering what stories the other could tell.

"Dr. Blez, Natalie typed an interesting story the other day during reading time, it involved her going down to the ocean in some kind of machine.”

“That’s good Mrs. Return. I’ve been saying to the IEP committee, that Natalie’s cognitive abilities are perfect, even gifted, but they can’t see to get past the severity of her physical abilities.”

“Well, she has stopped drooling now, and a few kids from the regular fourth grade class are interested in her typer. One boy’s got enough patience to listen to her stories, even if it takes forever for her to type them out.”

“Good. It’s about time for some positive peer interaction. If you can get me a copy of those stories, it would be helpful for her next IEP.”