People are strong

Strange things happen no matter who or where you are. You can use these to your advantage. After everyone has been determined alive, that is.

Take today.

I (erica) teach preschool (special ed and Head Start). This is my 15th year of teaching. But today (well, yesterday, by your standards), this happened:

It was someone's birthday. Not just anyone's, but one of the most vocal, most happiest, most cutest ever (yes, I can say that, I'm a preschool teacher and everyone is the most cutest, but most especially this one) girl's. She brought Caramel Apple suckers. You know them. They're awesome.

AND THEN????? (dum dum dum dum) (that was supposed to be a drum roll, not a declaration) One of the other girls - who has special needs but can eat everything anyone else eats - clamped down on hers. Like this:



well, but cute. and around a caramel apple sucker.

So, no problem, right?? Just open her mouth and get the sucker out.

That's when it gets tricky. And erica gets scared. Because, see, the teeth can not be opened. The sucker can not be dislodged. erica has now seen this child's death a million times in her mind. Trust me, if you imagine it, you can come up with a million ways to die by sucker.

THIS GOES ON FOR 15 MINUTES.

At which time erica and her aide put said child in a car (yes, in a car seat in a school van, don't you worry now - ha) and take her to the nearest dentist BECAUSE SERIOUSLY SOMEONE HAS TO UNSTUCK THIS CHILD'S TEETH BEFORE SHE DIES!!! (and by she, mostly at this point I mean me - erica - because the heart is seriously going haywire at this point)

The dentist tells me it will dissolve. Seriously. After half an hour of clamped jaw, he tells me it will go away on its own.

I'm dying a little bit more each second. Because what will dissolve first - the inside or the outside??

And who can do the heimlich on a little girl whose teeth ARE CLAMPED SHUT TIGHT????

Okay, fine - it all turned out. The sucker dissolved, mostly. Her mouth opened. I saw the sucker (with part of the stick) go down her throat and plucked it out with the tips of my fingers. In her throat. Umm, yeah.

SOOO!!!!!

Don't be worried to make weird things happen in your novels. Weird things happen all the time. And THANK THE LORD we mostly make it out alive.

Oh, did I mention that shortly after my dentist visit with my little cutie patootie, a mad/drunk/drugged man walked down THE SAME STREET waving a gun and threatening to shoot anyone in sight, prompting a big man hunt, complete with agents and assault rifles? Yep. And I live in a town with less than 1,000 people.

Feel free to use that in your next book. I know I can't. No one would believe me. ;)