The Skeleton | A Short Story

Ajay had been promoted from grade seven to eight. He was, after all, a bright student. However, he had a secret fear gnawing at him.

It was practical science. He had begun to loathe this class, simply because he was allergic to the human skeleton kept in the biology laboratory.

Ajay loved science as a subject. He had even secured the highest marks in the subject over the previous classes. He also loved the experiments mentioned in his textbooks. However, he just couldn’t stand the sight of the skeleton! He wasn’t sure why, but it was what it was. He had an eerie, ghastly sensation whenever he looked at it.

Ever since the school had reopened, he had managed to skip the practical classes. They were the last two periods on Thursdays. On the first Thursday, he had pretended to have a splitting headache and was sent to the sickroom to rest. On the second Thursday, he asked for a special leave to go home early. And, on the third Thursday, in the mathematics class, the period just before the practicals, he had deliberately chatted incessantly with his classmates. This had earned him a telling-off from the teacher. So, he had spent the rest of the day in the detention room, much to his relief. And on the fourth Thursday, the science teacher was absent!

Right now, on a bright Thursday afternoon in July, Ajay sat in class fidgeting with his pen and pencil. The next two periods were practicals.

He knew he could no longer avoid the classes. There was no running away from his fears anymore. He had to confront his demons, or in this case, the skeleton!

The bell rang, and the whole class trooped into the lab. As fate would have it, Ajay got jammed into a bench right beside the glass case containing the skeleton.

‘Aghh!’ he shuddered in disgust. ‘Skelly looks absolutely awful!’

He could hardly concentrate on the lecture on the microscope that the teacher was rattling off. In fact, he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the creepy skeleton in the glass case beside him.

The teacher was pointing out the different parts of the microscope. Ajay couldn’t take his eyes off the huge sockets in Skelly’s skull. They looked so grotesque and frightening! It had an awful rib cage. Equally awful were those bits of bones that held together its dangling arms and legs!

He secretly wished he could send Skelly and its glass case crashing down. That would be the end of him. Ajay sighed. The school bell rang, marking the end of his torture.

♦♦♦

Three days later, the science teacher, known to be an absent-minded professor, sent Ajay to fetch his spectacles.

‘I think I left them on the desk in the science lab,’ he told Ajay. ‘Do you mind getting them for me?’

He handed Ajay the lab keys.

Ajay opened the lab door. It was dark inside, for the curtains at the windows were drawn. He could make out a spooky object dangling in the dark. It was Skelly.

Ajay gulped and searched frantically for the light switch. He then ran down the room to the teacher’s table, opened the drawer, fished out the glasses, and shut the drawer with a bang.

He couldn’t resist taking another quick look at Skelly. Was it grinning at him? If so, what an awful smile it was!

Ajay scampered out of the room, locked the door, and ran all the way back to his class.

‘How am I ever going to fulfill my dream?’ he groaned to himself. He was morose and pensive. After all, he dreamed of becoming a surgeon when he grew up.

♦♦♦

The next day, Ajay had to go down to the lab again, this time for something else. Anuradha, one of the toppers in his class and his best friend, had lost her lucky pen in the lab!

‘Can you help me look for it?’ she asked Ajay.

‘Sure,’ he replied and followed her out of the class. En route to the lab, Ajay couldn’t help wondering why she had to lose the darn pen in the laboratory of all places.

Anyway, there they were, searching for the pen. Where else could it be except under Skelly’s glass case! Of course, that wasn’t something that occurred to him as he dived under the glass case and cried, ‘Here it is!”

Anuradha was elated that Ajay had helped her find her lucky pen and thanked him profusely. Meanwhile, Ajay tried his best not to look at the skeleton dangling above him, staring ominously at him.

♦♦♦

A few days later, life had another shock in store for Ajay. He hadn’t completed his homework. The way life had been treating him lately, he wasn’t surprised to learn that the homework was a series of diagrams of the human skeleton!

To make matters worse, the teacher was in a really foul mood that day. He had been drenched in the rain that morning and was completely wet by the time he got to school.

‘Get your textbook,’ he bellowed. ‘And complete your homework right now!’

However, to Ajay’s horror, he hadn’t brought his science textbook, either.

‘Go to the lab,’ thundered the teacher. ‘Sit beside the glass case and complete the assignment.’

To add insult to injury, he even instructed the lab in-charge to keep an eye on Ajay as he completed his assignment. The lady was to make sure that he didn’t budge an inch from his place beside the skeleton. This was his punishment!

Glumly, Ajay crept into the lab, his notebook under his arm and sharpened pencils in his hands.

‘Hahaha!’ Skelly seemed to mock him. Ajay looked away before gingerly sitting at a desk.

He was soon sketching vigorously. He could even look at Skelly without feeling petrified. In fact, Skelly’s frame helped him get some valuable insights into human anatomy. Skelly wasn’t so scary, after all!

After the tenth diagram, he discovered that he had developed a sneaking liking for Skelly. Skelly and Ajay were finally friends!

♦♦♦

The next morning, as Ajay walked out to attend the assembly, he passed by the lab. The door was ajar, but there was nobody inside.

Ajay peered into the lab, at Skelly, who was smiling as always.

‘Hey, Skelly,’ Ajay said softly. ‘You know, your grin isn’t as horrible as it looks, you poor thing. Just to let you know, I don’t hate you anymore.’

Skelly kept grinning.

‘Well, who knows,’ Ajay grinned back. ‘I might become a doctor after all!’