Assignment 3 (experience when you weren't on your own)

My brother and I stared at the couch with baited breath. At any moment, my father would make his way into the living room to take his afternoon nap. He was oblivious that we had something else planned for him. Inspired by the many cartoons we enjoyed, my brother and I decided to perform an experiment: if my dad were to sit down onto a needle, would he fly up in the air as seen on television? This lovable aspect of the modern day cartoon perplexed us.

The preparation for this test led us into my mother’s sewing kit. How many needles did we need? One lonely needle was the classic example of what we wanted to accomplish, but given the odds of that successfully working, we decided to add a few more. I took the right side of the couch and my brother worked on the left. It took a long time threading the needles into the couch to where they would stick straight up into the air. Thirty or so needles and an hour later we were satisfied. We found our hiding place and began our wait. We had front row tickets to what seemed like a full proof plan.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of sitting in the cramped little closet, my father entered the living room. Our eyes widened. This was the moment of truth. He slowly positioned himself on the couch. Nothing happened. He stretched out. Still, nothing happened. Our hopes of seeing the live version of our cartoons were shattered.

Laughing off the failed experiment, we popped out of the closet to admit to our father just what was supposed to happen. This was a horrible mistake. His eyes, that were once drowsy and unable to focus, transformed into a sharp rage filled stare with every statement we shared. Our giggles were soon stifled as we realized punishment was eminent. I had no idea why my father was angry, but I had no intentions of staying to find out.