Short Story - The Green Giant

Short Story Tuesdays

Three times as long and twice as tall as any other in the school, Mrs. Ahab’s chalkboard was an anomaly to both teachers and students alike. The former wondered why the old instructor insisted on keeping it throughout the decades while the other educators had adapted to changing times, although some believed the rumor that she kept it around because it was the very chalkboard she had learned from so long ago. As for the students it was to be feared, lessons going on for days, sometimes weeks, as she never ran out of room on that Green Giant of hers.

Because of its size Mrs. Ahab’s class was the most disciplined and quiet in all the school, every single pupil wanting to avoid her punishment of having to write a sentence over and over again until the pea green monster was completely filled. Of course no one ever knew of anyone who actually came close to filling the board within the two hours of detention after school, but there were stories that a few came close and in so doing had developed “zombie arm,” left so stiff they were never to be the same again.

And so Ricky had run as fast as his legs would move him, sprinting back out to the playground to find his lost lunch ticket before the tardy bell rang. But the thought of not making it back in time caused this sixth grader to panic, slowing him down enough to where the bell rang out with such a blaring shout that it was as if it came from the Green Giant itself, just before he crossed the finish line of the classroom door.

The looks on Ricky’s classmates faces said it all, feeling sorry for him while at the same time so relieved it hadn’t been them. And then there was Mrs. Ahab’s face, red hot with laser-beam eyes burning down into him, her wide mouth in Slo-Mo sentencing him to an afternoon of countless sentences.

Tardiness is a sign of disrespect.

And so with the final bell came the freedom of his peers, Ricky looking out the window in sorrow as they ran out into the last few hours of sunshine. He looked back to the Green Giant before him, the green skyscraper, the green mile, then with a hand that already felt heavy put chalk to board.

Tardiness is a sign of disrespect.

Ricky began to write.

About a half a dozen sentences in his mind began to wander.

Tartar sauce is a sign of a disgruntled fish.

Disgruntled. It had been one of his vocabulary words last week, and now he couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of this sentence he had just written. After writing it a few more times his hand and mind began to work as one, one sentence flowing into another and serving as the beginning of an interesting story about a fish who sets out to turn the waters he lives in into swampy green so as to deter fishermen from using his home as their hunting grounds.

Before he realized it