The Giant Mite

by Diane

It was a sunny afternoon and kids were playing outside. Some women were doing their daily jogging, and men were taking out the dogs after a tiring day of work. This was normally the scene you would find in my small neighborhood of the eastern coast of the USA. I, Samantha Martins, 13 years old, had to be locked up at home to do homework. I hate it! I am a pretty, thin girl with blue eyes and blond hair who is doing horribly at school. It was the middle of June and it was really hot outside. Most of my friends were going to cool off at the public pool. I wanted to go with them; but first I had to finish my homework.

I'd prefer not to have been at home because then I wouldn't be in this mess. It all started at 4 o'clock. My neighbor, Brian, came ringing at my door. Brian has green eyes, brown hair and is extremely intelligent. He came to ask me if I would go with him to see an old friend of his. I thought that anything would be better than homework. He told me to bring my bike along. I pedaled next to him, trying to keep up. After about 10 minutes we arrived, sweating, in front of the town science labs.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"You'll see!" he responded.

We left our bikes close to the entrance and headed inside. I followed Brian through the white hallways of the building. Finally we found the right lab.

We went into the room filled with recipients of all sorts and found Professor Birkley. He was an individual of about 50 and had big square glasses. Birkley was looking into a microscope. After introductions were made he explained the experiment he was working on.

"I am going to take one mite, enlarge it, and then of course study it. This is my first try at it so the effect will last for only a small amount of time. "

After half an hour we were facing an enormous mite that was coming right at us. What could we do? Luckily Pr. Birkley was just testing his product, and so we saw the mite grow smaller, back to its normal size. I never went to visit Pr. Birkley again and decided to stick to homework.

-0-

Some questions to ponder...

1. If Samantha had to be locked up, how did she get out?
2. Why is Samantha doing badly at school?
3. Does she hate her English teacher?
4. Why didn't she visit Pr. Birkley again?
5. What does a giant mite look like?
6. Do you suppose Pr. Birkley's product has other applications?

 

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