06 March, 2007

The Fifteen Foot Guy: An allegory about why our location is just unfit for a Night High School

"I swear, Miss. I SWEAR. The guy was fifteen feet tall and he was attacked by a whole bunch of little guys. It was kind of funny. Kind of. I mean, I admit it, I was kind of laughing. That guy was fifteen feet tall."

--"Where did this happen, Dale?"
-- "Right here. Right outside this door."
--"In the hallway?"
-- "No, Miss. Not the hallway. The parking lot. The door to exit the school is right beneath us. You know that, right? So, it's like it was right outside this door."
-- "Last night?"
--" Naw, naw. This evening. As we were walking into the building. You know how they got that tree right by the entrance. First, all you see is cars, then there's that humongous tree, ain't got no leaves on it."
-- "Did you tell security?"
--" Miss, I didn't have to tell them nothing, 'cause they done seed it through their cameras. They're not allowed to go outside and do nothing about it. That's for the PO-leece."
-- "Did you tell the principal?"
-- "I think security did. I hope so. Anyway, I'll tell Mr. Allen. He's the AP, that's close enough."
-- "The principal needs to know."
-- "He'll tell her, won't he?"
-- "Why won't you just go tell her? She's just down the hall."
-- "Miss. I don't know her. I really don't know nothing about her. Maybe she'll think I was involved. I ain't feeling her. I never did. What's she gonna say -- probably that something's already been done. Or she'll come after me like I was involved"
-- "Were you?"
-- "NO! I spent the whole time behind that goddamn tree hoping this thing would be over with and that I wouldn't bust out laughing."
--"I'll tell,Mr. Allen."
-- "Yeah, I think that's better. I mean, I should have done something, shouldn't I? But I couldn't. I mean, I'm only FIVE FOOT TEN."
--" It's okay, Dale."
--"I guess it has to be."

2 comments:

Pacian said...

Well I'm only five nine, so I'd have stood under a car or something.

Rachel Grynberg said...

I'm 4'11, so I could have been one of the little people attacking the 15 foot guy. I just fell in love with the kind of Grimm's quality of this student's perception.