Ka-SPLOOSH!!

Roger was my chemistry lab partner not by design, but by alphabet.  It was painfully obvious that I wasn't his type, nor he mine.  Thank goodness we were intellectual equals.  At least we were able to get along academically if not socially.

On that Monday I was trying to figure out a way to remember certain formulas.  On the atomic weight chart (only 102, maybe 104 elements back then) I could only remember silver, gold (big surprise there) and carbon (diamond, for those who haven't caught up yet).  I wasn't stupid, just disinterested.  I liked Bunsen burners and mixing stuff in little glass tubes and beakers (you break it, you buy it, Miss DiLuzio!).

That day was quiz day. Twenty-five elements to identify, plus formulas to decode.  Geez.  How was I going to finish my essay for Edna Mae and still do the test?  Sigh.

The still on the counter next to me sputtered and spit.  Mr. E came over and tinkered. then walked away.  It gurgled a bit louder, and spit some more. He came back, fiddled with the coils and walked away again.

Just as he turned his back, the piping came loose.  A stream of water shot to the ceiling and came down on my head!  Ka-SPLOOSH!!   AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

Roger, bless him, grabbed my test, my notebook and me, yanking it all out from under the monsoon.  My purse, tucked under the table, remained relatively dry.  My essay for Edna Mae did not.  Mr, E made a sniggering comment about having time to study for a make-up test.  I looked like a drowned rat, hair plastered to my head, my shirt soaked through. Talk about attention-grabbing.  Classmates chuckled.  I didn't.

Of course Edna Mae was less than happy about the sopping essay.  I'm not sure she believed me at first, till she noted my wet clothes and the water dribbling down the wall from the chem lab upstairs.  And no, not even the tsunami was enough to make Roger and me friends.

When I toured Academy for our twenty-fifth reunion, I poked my nose into the old chem lab.  The still was gone, of course, the floor long since dried.  No test tubes, no Bunsen burners, no Roger.   It had been a long, long time.

I wonder where Roger is now?

(Note: last I new, he was in Los Angeles working in aerospace. How about that?)