A Lab Right Out of a Horror Movie
(Clouse: Cornerstones: Readings for Writers)
Last Thursday while sitting in biology lab listening to Dr. Dodd's
lecture, I felt as if I were in the midst of Dr. Frankenstein's
laboratory. I shuddered with a tingling chill as I eyed the cage full
of white rats squealing madly as they awaited their death. Next to
the doomed rats was a liquid-filled jar imprisoning a dead kitten,
and next to the kitten was a rack of test tubes filled with a slimy
white gel. On the waist-high counter that runs the length of the far
wall were the objects for the students scientific study: a parched
bone with its greasy, yellow marrow, a dissected fetal pig
displaying its once life-sustaining organs, and a pan of clear liquid
nurturing a clump of flesh brain tissue. Behind Dr.
Frankenstein-Dodd hung an ancient skeleton, the remains of life
unknown, suspended from a steel bar. In front of him on the lab
table was a squirming rat that had just been dropped in a jar of
ether. Slowly the rat stopped fighting as the toxic fumes filled its
lungs. The frenzied scientist donned a white lab coat and
reached for a razor-sharp scalpel. Suddenly ill, I turned my head
left, toward the glass case by the door. A giant blue eye, a model
locked away in the case, stared straight at me. I closed my eyes
to avoid all the hideous sights and noticed once again the stench
of formaldehyde I weeks ago had ceased to notice. Suddenly I
was forced back to the business at hand as Dr. Dodd called the
class to the front to view the dissection. As I walked to the lab
table I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if Igor shuffled in about
now?"