The Missing Beak

An interesting anecdote as told by my coworker today in the nap room:

In Milwaukee, I have a neighbor, a grandma, who told my mom a story a little while ago. Something that happened to her 7 year old granddaughter.

She said that her grandchild went on a field trip to the Shed Aquarium in Chicago. Things were going smoothly. The children behaved, willingly herded to each tank. Staring at each of the exhibits.

All of a sudden the teacher realized that my neighbor's grandchild was missing. They started to panic, looking all over the aquarium. They looked in the Oceanarium room, and found her near the beluga whales, to their relief.

On the bus ride home, the child spoke to her teacher. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I did something bad."

The teacher shook her head. "No, it's all right. You know what you did, and we have you safe and sound. It doesn't matter. It's okay."

The girl persisted. "No, I'm sorry. I did a really bad thing."

The teacher also persisted. "It's okay, dear, really. You're on the bus with us. You scared us a little but it's alright."

The girl shook her head. "No, you're going to be mad at me. I did something really bad."

The teacher started. "No you didn't--"

She stopped as the child started to unzip her backback. Inside, quiet and frightened, was a penguin. A live penguin that had crawled into the girl's backpack. And they had traveled halfway to Milwaukee with it on the bus.

The teacher yelled "Oh my god!"

Apparently, as far as I can tell, the girl had snuck behind the scenes into the penguin exhibit and had somehow lured a penguin into her backpack.

They called the aquarium, turned the bus around, and retured the penguin before returning to school.

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I just about shit a brick when I heard this story.

Blue Roses -- "Doubtful Comforts"