A DILLER, a dollar,
A ten o'clock scholar,
What makes you come so soon?
You used to come at ten o'clock,
But now you come at noon.
(Traditional Nursery Rhyme)
***
There once was a famous teacher called Professor Snodgrass. One of the rather random things he was famous for was always eating lunch at noon. No matter what he was doing he always made time for lunch at noon and people admired his dedication to make time for himself. One of his fellow scholars, Professor Twindleness, was conducting an experiment and asked Professor Snodgrass for his help since he was such a profound academic. Professor Snodgrass agreed on meeting once a week at 10pm and Professor Twindleness was quite excited. Also, Professor Twindleness was to pay Professor Snodgrass with one dill pickle and one dollar each visit.
A DILLER, a dollar,
A ten o'clock scholar.
***
Professor Twindleness was grateful to meet at 10pm because after school each day he helped teach a swing dance class. His daughter was in the class so it was a great time for them to spend quality time. After 6 months of meeting with Professor Snodgrass the experiment was still not working right and both professors were extremely frustrated. Professor Twindleness was on the verge of giving up when his daughter asked if he would teach another dance class at 10pm for her and some other friends. He decided to take on teaching the class and give up on his experiment. He thought, “at least this way I can spend some more time with my daughter.”
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| Professor Twindleness |
The weeks went by and Professor Twindleness thought often about his experiment and whether or not it was the right decision to give up. In his soul something felt off and it proved to be quite a distraction in his life. He didn’t know if he even had time to work on the experiment if he wanted to because his only break during the day was from noon to 1pm.
Eventually, the pit in Professor Twindleness’ gut grew wide and deep enough that he could ignore it no longer. He stormed outside at noon where Professor Snodgrass was eating lunch and exclaimed, “Sir, I want to do this experiment the right way and I need your help and the only time I can do it is right now, please, help me, this could change the future!” Professor Snodgrass was shocked and these words took some time to sink in and awaken his mind from its noon lunch haze. He considered his options and after a very pregnant pause said, “I will help you, but I am bringing my sandwich with me.”
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| Professor Snodgrass' lunch spot |
As fate would have it one of the key components to the experiment’s eventual success was sunlight. It is easy to see how this factor was overlooked when both professors had only been able meet in the evenings. However, it is much harder to tell if this was a product of mere coincidence or not.
Thank goodness you explained the nursery rhyme because I had no idea what "A diller, a dollar" meant. The Little Rascals used to be my favorite movie when I was a kid! I can still remember the song that they sang when the little boys were eating their pickles. It was such a great yet cheesy movie. Because I love food so much, I would have taken my sandwich with me also! No one will separate me from my lunch haha. It was interesting how you incorporated the theme of coincidence vs fate. Do you think life is based off of coincidence or fate?
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting story! I like the aspect you went with by choosing a very abstract nursery so you can adapt almost anything to it; I wish I would have thought of that as well! Your story was very creative and being a scientist myself, I enjoyed it even more. This story shows a good moral in life; how important time management and happiness can be. If someone is dedicated to something enough, they can always make time for it some way or another.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the part of your story where the experiment worked because of sunlight; I can picture that as a kind of "a ha" moment for the characters in the story. That was the most engaging part because it gave me satisfaction with the ending. Throughout the story I really had no idea where you might take it, and I enjoyed how you expanded on the nursery rhyme in this way. I wonder if Professor Snodgrass experienced some kind of internal struggle when considering whether to give up his lunch time or not.. Could you find a way to expand on what was going through his head? I was also thinking, what if you included another image in the story at the end, maybe of what the final experiment was/turned out to do? I feel like that is a loose end that I would like to have tied up. But really great job... Very creative!
ReplyDeleteI love the way you put your own twist on this original nursery rhyme! I, too, wouldn't have known what the author was thinking when writing this nursery rhyme, so I think it's awesome you did some research on some of the diction used. I also loved the names you came up with! Very creative and imaginative job on this story.
ReplyDeleteThis story was so fun to read! I really liked how you changed it up so much and added some interesting details. Professor Snodgrass and Professor Twindleness both seem like cool guys, and I liked getting to read about them! This was such a creative story, and the incorporation of science was also cool since that always makes everything more exciting!
ReplyDeleteHey Steve! This is such a fun and interesting story to read, I love the additions you made on such an original nursery rhyme. The images you chose really help add to the story, and help me as the reader envision the characters and what is happening at that particular point. You are such a good writer, thanks for sharing!
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