Saved by ACCIDENTAL BEE!
I've just remembered a story from my primary school days, when, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was at a C of E school. (Well, tambourine-banging evangelism masquerading as C of E...) I don't remember much of the work we did in the first few years...mostly just sheets full of sums to complete or handwriting exercises. But I recall one afternoon when the teachers got the paints out. I think we'd been studying Noah's Ark, because we were set up round a table with the watercolours and told to paint animals. I could only have been about 6 years old at the time, and the class was taught by Ms J, who was lovely.

The assistant teacher, Mrs S, however, I was slightly afraid of. She was alright really, but had a tendency to be a bit shouty if she didn't like you. When it came to my turn to paint, she was supervising the group. I wasn't too worried to start with and just started dawbing at this piece of paper, absent-mindedly.

After a few minutes, I realised I was daydreaming. As I'm often wont to do, even to this day, the part of my brain in charge of regular, rational thought just departed this world and disappeared off into some fantasy world which probably involved dinosaurs and my cat, Morris. (I loved my cat. He was awesome.) Morris and I had likely just hitched a ride on the back of a triceratops when I heard a voice cutting through the fabric of my Cretaceous wonderland.

It was Mrs S.
"So, what animals are you all painting?"
Oh crap. Oh holy fucking crap. I've been daydreaming.
My heart did not so much skip a beat so much as a Gene Krupa drum fill. My hand had just kept daubing at the paper as my brain had imagined me climbing a tree with Morris to escape a hungry megalosaurus. I'd forgotten I was supposed to be painting an animal and I'd just wasted a load of time and paint and Mrs S would be angry and shout at me because I hadn't done as I was told...

Time ticked away. Johnathan was painting a lion. Kirsty was painting a horse. There were only a few more kids left between me and the wrath of Mrs S.

I had to think fast - and not about the possibility of being saved by a conveniently placed and benevolent ankylosaurus - could I turn this collection of daubs into an animal of some, any description?

Christopher was painting a pig.
Fay was painting a zebra.

I looked down at the piece of paper. What had my hand been doing all this time?

Robert was painting a bird.

I looked down and saw a series of yellow and black lines.
Oh god oh god what's yellow and black and striped and...well, it's just yellow and black stripes, like...a zebra covered in wee...or...
"A BEE!" I said.

Fuck knows how, but my brain had managed to save me by drawing Accidental Bee. At least, brain had painted something which I could turn into a (very long) bee. I could paint a bee and then Mrs S wouldn't shout at me.

I resolved to finish my bee and return to my Cretaceous paradise at a later date. That was too close. Thank goodness for Accidental Bee.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 19 Aug 2009, 12:23, 5 replies)

*likes*
I would like to hear more of Morris and your adventures. They sound ACE!
( MademoiselleDave is drunk and on the internet again on, Wed 19 Aug 2009, 13:53, closed)

Fantastic!
Lovely story.
(TheColonel, Wed 19 Aug 2009, 16:59, closed)

A click
for the Gene Krupa reference alone.
( Sonic the Hedgetrimmer doesn't care what you think, Wed 19 Aug 2009, 17:38, closed)

i wonder
what wouldve happened if you stuck with the zebra covered in wee idea.

also, bonus points for ankylosaurus! reminds me of that old joke...

what did the brachiosaurus say to the ankylosaurus?
"dyou wanna go out clubbing?"
"well, you may jest, but actually the bones at the end of my tail are fused together, so I have no choice really"
"oh".
(bacontrout got ska, Thu 20 Aug 2009, 1:38, closed)

Ankylosaurus was an awesome dinosaur
But then, all dinosaurs were pretty awesome in one way or another. I may have to find opportunities to use that joke in conversation.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 20 Aug 2009, 9:17, closed)