? Can you write a little story about a SCHOOL FIELDTRIP that includes 6 of these!
Question: 1. I know this may not be the best time to ask this, but ________________
2. Okay.....Who took my cell phone?
3. I could have SWORN that dinosaur moved!
4. A voice came over the loud speaker : "____________."
5. MIGRAINES !! Everyone of you is my cross to bear!!
6. Uh huh. Uh huh. Now YOU listen to ME, young man!!
7. I can feel my brain cells dying....One by one.
8. Did you see that??!!
9. Chaos broke out......The teacher nearly trampled her students.
10. I turned around slowly and saw ______________
Answers: 1. I know this may not be the best time to ask this, but ________________
2. Okay.....Who took my cell phone?
3. I could have SWORN that dinosaur moved!
4. A voice came over the loud speaker : "____________."
5. MIGRAINES !! Everyone of you is my cross to bear!!
6. Uh huh. Uh huh. Now YOU listen to ME, young man!!
7. I can feel my brain cells dying....One by one.
8. Did you see that??!!
9. Chaos broke out......The teacher nearly trampled her students.
10. I turned around slowly and saw ______________
The only explanation given by the school for the field trip destination was that the children had been misbehaving. As far as explanations go, it left a lot to be desired, but the parents weren't likely to question anything. The alternative was to keep them home from the field trip which meant keeping them home from school, and what parent wanted to ground themselves for the day with their preteen kids?
The original plan was to take this field trip to Ballyhoo's Amusement Park to "learn" about the effect of cotton candy on one's health. Or some such nonsense. However, due to a series of unfortunate incidents involving a dead cat, the school's toilets, Mrs Niedenfuhror's sanity, and some misplaced saliva, the destination had changed completely.
The bus began pulling up the long drive, and, inside, a voice came over the loudspeaker:
"Please remain seated until we come to a stop. Any silly stuff will result severely unpleasant consequences."
"Yeah right," Tommy Engvall mumbled. "Gobble me."
A titter of nervous laughter greeted him, but there were several uneasy faces. The children, usually boisterous and full of vinegar, were completely puzzled and more than a little nervous addressing this new field trip destination.
The bus wheezed to a stop and the door squeeked open. Mr. Bumgartner stood up and faced them all with a grim expression.
"Now, boys and girls. We are going to learn a lot this afternoon. We're gonna learn to follow directions. We're gonna learn what hard work is. We're going to learn the consequences of thumbing your nose at education. And we're going to learn a little respect. Any rebellion will be rewarded with severe retribution."
"This is bulls**t!" Tommy defiantly said. "I thought you were kidding when you said we were coming here! You can't make us do a thing-"
"Uh huh. Uh huh. Now YOU listen to ME, young man! I can and will make you do a thing. I'll make you do a lot of things. We are at the Penfield County Sewage Treatment plant ladies and gentlemen. Since you enjoy toilets so much, and since you love acting like little turds, we're gonna help them out on an eight hour shift here. If you obey, you'll do the easier jobs. Make it hard on me, and you'll shovel the crap. Literally. Make it even harder, and we've got something even more unpleasant for you. Just try me."
Tommy bared his teeth, but chose to remain silent.
"Now file out in an orderly fashion and line up on the sidewalk outside of the bus."
They did as they were told, expressions a rictus of uncertainty. Only Tommy remained openly disdainful of the whole experience, and Mr. Bumgartner noted that he would have to keep his eye on the boy. Either he or Tommy Engvall was going to leave this place a broken human being. Bumgartner, a veteran of Iraq and Somalia, steeled himself.
It was only a matter of minutes before a foreman for the sewage plant appeared. Behind him were three more employees, all carrying a stack of blue denim overalls and yellow hard hats. Each student was given one of each and told to pull them on over their clothes. Then they were filed into the building.
Bumgartner could tell that the foreman was still a bit leary about the whole arrangement. Obviously, there were liability issues involved in a foray of this nature, but the school had signed some dozen waiver forms absolving the treatment plant of any liability. At Wendell high, the true pragmatist's school, radical measures were the norm, and they would take full responsibility.
Bumgartner's attention was drawn to three students who had wandered out of line and were staring through an open partition in the hallway.
"My god, look at that freakin raisin back there," Mike Bower said and giggled.
"What a fossil. I could have SWORN that dinosaur moved," replied Joey Baker. The three began pealing laugther and leaning on each other. Bumgartner got to them and looked in at the object of their ridicule. An incredibly old woman was rummaging through a file cabinet, her back to a stack of papers seemingly a mile high.
"Very nice," Earl Bumgartner said. "I think I found three more volunteers for the poopy pool."
"Ohhhh," they all three said in unision. Only Joey thought to ask what the poopy pool was.
"You'll see. Now get back in line."
They marched deeper into the plant in a single file line, Tommy Engvall bringing up the rear, his gaze still smouldering and darting around.
"Ok," the foreman said, bringing them to a stop just outside a set of metal doors. "Five of you will go in here and learn how to control the influx and output of pretreated waste."
"Don't you mean sh**?" Tommy asked, a devlish grin spreading across his face.
"No, I mean waste. Also, beyond this point the odor is going to be very noticeable. The building is designed to minimize the smell up to a certain point, but once we enter the control area, the mezzanine beyond, and then the inflow chamber, the odor can be overpowering at times."
"No way, man," Tommy said. He was shaking his head and removing his helmet. "I am NOT going in there. This joke has gone far enough. It's over."
"Put your helmet back on Tommy," Bumgartner said. There was something in his voice that not only made Tommy pause, but actually put the helmet back on. Temper or no, Tommy had to recognize that Mr. Bumgartner was a very large man.
The foreman opened the metal door and the smell pushed hit them immediately. Susannah Rush gagged and had to hold on to the wall for support while the remainder of the students pinched their noses and tried to keep from turning green.
"Holy s**t," Tommy said. "I can feel my brain cells dying....one by one. My parents are going to hear about all this, I promise you that."
"That's fine Tommy," Earl Bumgartner said through a grin. The showdown was approaching, and he could feel himself relishing the prospect of doing battle.
He selected the five students for the control room, and the diminished entourage moved on.
The mezzanine was a huge area filled with large tanks and pressure valves. In the center sat one of the largest structures that Earl Bumgartner had ever seenl. It was squarish in shape and made of what appeared to be hammered copper. Over forty pipes ran into it and a deep thrumming could be heard from deep within it.
"This is the mezzanine area and this particular device is the water filter." The foreman had to yell to be heard over the tumult of machinery. "Six of you will remain here to learn how to monitor the filtration unit and regulate the mezzanine tanks!"
Bumgartner motioned six of them out of the line, leaving only the three from old lady incident earler. And Tommy Engvall. Then he nodded at the foreman to continue.
They took several minutes to parade through the seemingly endless mezzanine before coming to a large concrete wall with a sliding steel door set into it. The mezzanine was much quieter here, so the foreman did not have a need to shout.
"Beyond this last door is a large chamber with a gigantic pool in the middle. This is called the inflow chamber. It's where all the pretreated sewage of Penfield County first comes before it is filtered. It is foul smelling. It is extremely dirty. And it is also dangerous. Like any pool, you can drown in it, you can slip in the muck that can coat the floor around the pool and break something. And if you're not paying attention, you can lose jewelry and other loose items in the pool forever. So please stick together and listen to what you're told. You will be taught to clean the floor around the pool to minimize a falling hazard and you will be taught to use the regulation valve for the inflow pool itself. Okay? Let's go."
The foreman slid open the door and the four students walked in with Earl Bumgartner in tow.
The gaping maw of the largest fecal pool any of them had ever seen was the sight that greeted them.
"Wow," Joey Baker breathed. He was turning very green around the gills and virtually shaking in fear or awe or both.
And that's when Bumgartner felt it. The hand darted in and out of his pocket so quick he almost didn't feel the intrusion. But he had.
"Okay....Who took my cell phone?" he asked, still maintiaining a pleasant demeanor, but allowing some darkness to creep into his voice.
"I did Mr. Bum licker," Tommy said from three feet away. "Wanna see if it can fly?"
And he hurled it right into the pool.
"Did you see that?!" Mike Bower had time to ask.
What happened next is still discussed by the employees of Penfield sewage treatment plant.
Smiling, calm, and quick as greased lightning, Earl Bumgartner grabbed Tommy Engvall and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of laundry. Tommy, too stunned to react at first, could be seen turning very pale, his mouth open in an "O". As Bumgartner made his way to the sewage pool, Tommy only grew paler.
Too late, he began to kick and yell. Too late the foreman started forward to try to reach the struggling form that was Tommy Engvall.
Bumgartner reached the edge of the pool. He whipped Tommy off his shoulder and slid his grip to Tommy's Ankles. Then he flipped him upside down and held him over the pool like the penduluum on a grandfather clock.
"Lesson time, Tommy," Engvall said and began to grin. He lowered his arms and dipped the now screaming Tommy headfirst into the inflow pool. He pulled up. Dipped again. Pulled up...dipped again.....
The bottom line is that Earl Bumgartner was right. One of them did indeed leave Penfield County Sewage Treatment Plant a broken man. In fact, both of them did.
You'll find Tommy Engvall a very quiet boy these days. He hasn't spoken to anyone in the eight months since the incident occurred. He just sits on a wooden stool in the corner of the living room, shaking slightly, and absently scrubbing his skin, trying to remove an odor that just won't quite leave.
And Earl Bumgartner? Once his two years at Fullerton Sanitarium are over, he'lll likely remain committed of his own free will. It's much safer in there you see.....
Thank you ALL for the enjoyment you afforded me as well as others!!!
APPLAUSE ))))) Report It
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