Forensics and dead kittens (standard:non fiction, 1432 words)
Author: Eutychus	Added: Jun 08 2004	Views/Reads: 3902/2277	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A discussion my son and I had this past year when they were studying debating in language arts. Not an attempt to fuel debate, just an accounting of something that happened in our home that was memorable enough to put down on paper.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


“So what do you think about abortion and why?” 

“Is this research for your debate or are you really curious?” 

“I guess I'm curious. Kind of like the ‘why do you believe in God when
Miss Walker says it's all myths?' question,” he said with a smart-ass 
grin, recalling how he had rattled me with that one earlier in the 
year. 

“I see. That reminds me, I need to talk to her about that separation of
church and state thing she's so fond of calling out when it's to her 
advantage to do so. There have been a lot of things that helped shape 
my opinion on that subject. There's the religious argument, the 
emotional argument, the impact of watching your birth. All of these had 
their role in forming my feelings. What do you want to hear?” 

“How ‘bout the very first thing that made you have an opinion?” 

“Well that was way back when the Supreme Court was arguing the Roe v.
Wade thing, and it's not pretty.” 

“Sounds good. Tell me about it.” 

“Alright. You know your grandpa is from Wisconsin and he's told you
stories about the farm, right?” 

“Yes, and about the Indians that came to his grandpa's farm for
chickens.” 

“Okay. Well one summer I got to stay on one of the dairy farms he talked
about and got to feed and milk cows. I also got to pick blueberries and 
catch fish, but that's another story. Anyway, part of my job on the 
farm was to empty and reset the rat traps that were set near the grain 
bins.” 

“Didn't they have a cat to catch rats?” 

“You know, I wondered about that too. Kevin, who was a kid on the farm
who was my age, told me she had just had kittens and was busy with them 
so we had to catch the rats on our own for a little while. I had never 
seen recently born kittens and after I had reset the traps, I went to 
have a look. They had stacked up some hay bales around where she had 
had the kittens in the upper floor of the barn and I quietly looked 
over the barrier. The cat was covered with blood and I didn't see any 
kittens. When I told Kevin what I had seen, he replied that she must 
have eaten them.” 

“What?” Caleb asked. “Why would she eat her kittens?” 

“I'm not sure. Kevin just said that sometimes it happens. So when I got
back home and your grandma asked me about the trip, I told her about 
how the cat ate her babies and that I did some other things while I was 
there. She pretty much said the same thing Kevin had said and added 
that sometimes sad things like that happen in nature.” 

“How did you tell her?” 

“I said, ‘Mom, she ate her bay..bees',” I said with as much melodrama as
I could muster. “But the real fun came when I started telling my 
friends about it and I learned the value of a really unpleasant story. 
I was going into fifth grade at the time and the ability to tell a 
really disgusting story, especially a true one, was a skill to be 
envied. I told that story all summer long and then into the school year 
for a few weeks because of the gross-out factor and the way fifth grade 
girls reacted to the tale.” 

“So what does this have to do with the abortion debate?” he asked. 

“Well during a part of the class that was devoted to current events,
Mrs. Cohen talked about the debate regarding abortion that was going on 
in the Supreme Court. After the topic was discussed in a structured 
way, she gave us the opportunity to give our own opinions about it. As 
everyone else was talking about it, I decided that the whole subject 
was just like my story about the cat.” 

“Did you ever say anything?” 

“I said something to the effect that it was no different than my cat and
kittens story except that you skipped over the part at the dinner table 
and went straight to the clean up the mess afterwards. I just thought 
we should be able to do better in 'The Great Society'. Lyndon Johnson. 
Look it up. It was a long time before I was allowed to have an opinion 
in class.” 

“Dad, you're sick,” he said and shook his head. 

“You don't plan on using any of that in your debate, I hope.” 

“Don't worry. I'm just going to go through my index cards one more time
before bed,” he said and headed to his room. 

I looked at my wife and got one of those over the top of the glasses
scowls. She pushed the glasses up her nose and said, “Whatever his 
grade ends up being in language arts this nine weeks, know right now 
that I'm holding you responsible.” 


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