Community Service
Mr. Snow’s classes raved over Dewey’s presentations the next Monday. Dewey presented “Shark Facts and Myths” along with all the statistics he had gathered about the likelihood of running into a shark and being attacked by one.
“Surfers and fishermen get scared, too, but they know they are more likely to get struck by lightning than get killed by a shark. You’re more likely to drown, more likely to get bitten by a dog, more likely to get bitten by someone on the subway in New York!” he encouraged them.
The students’ eyes stayed glued to the screen. Some mouths, but no heads, dropped as Dewey presented how, over the course of one year, there were over 40,000 people injured on their toilets compared to only thirteen shark injuries.1 Mr. Snow patted him on the back and nodded his head.
“I’m still scared though,” admitted Alexander, a tall, lanky kid who always wore his skateboard logo baseball hat backwards on his head. “I know it doesn’t make sense. I just am.”
Once Alexander admitted it, the others confessed to feeling the same.
Each in his or her turn shared feeling afraid to go in the ocean or to take a bath at home or, in poor Ben’s case, to even drink from the fountain. Dewey felt crestfallen. After all this work, had he failed?
The kids all walked out of the room seemingly grateful for his lesson.
“Great lesson, Dewey! Where’d you learn all of that stuff?”
They appreciated his information but left unaffected.
Mr. Snow just sat at his desk slowly tapping his fingers together. He seemed to be deep in thought.
“Um, thanks, Mr. Snow.”
“Oh, really great job, Dewey. Thanks so much. I’ll be sure you get service hours for this,” he said. But he looked distracted, and Dewey wondered what he might be thinking.
🦈
Dewey found Seraphina and Colin sitting at the lunch tables after school, working on a poster of some sort. Seraphina had twisted her hair into a knot on top of her head. Colin sat gnawing on a pencil.
“What are you two doing?”
“Trying to come up with a slogan for our cause that unites our vending machine and t-issues. Stuck. We’re stuck,” Seraphina sighed.
Colin tried to talk with a big piece of banana in his mouth. “Struruck,” he mumbled.
“Oh, I already have it for you,” Dewey said flatly. Everything that had just occurred last period in Mr. Snow’s science class still had him distracted. “‘We want our Tootsie Roll—We want our Toilet Roll.’ And we glue the Tootsie Rolls on the poster board along with the toilet paper.”
Dewey swung his backpack over his shoulder. “See you guys in a bit,” he added as he walked away.
“What?” replied Colin. “Are you kidding? That’s incredible!”
“Oh boy,” laughed Seraphina. “What is it with him and Tootsie Rolls?”
“Where are you going?” Colin called after Dewey.
“I gotta figure out some stuff,” Dewey called back as he made his way back to his office.