Cootie Poison

Sarah is in kindergarten and is curious about her whole world. So when she learns some interesting secret from a girl in her class, she sets out to discover the truth in it. Super short but cute :3

“Alright everybody, wait for the crossing guard,” Mr. G said as we stopped by the side of the road. My kindergarten class was very loud. We were almost louder than the cars passing us. It was okay to be loud, though. It was Outside Time. Today we had gone to the park on a field trip during Outside Time. There was a playground at the park. I really liked the playground. My favorite was the swings. Mary and I had spent most of Outside Time on the swings. But we also played tag with the Other Girls. The Other Girls are not my friends, but they are Mary’s friends, so sometimes I play tag with them. Only sometimes, though.

My name is Sarah, and I am four-and-a-half years old. I’ve been going to school for a long time now. I have the best teacher. His name is Mr. G. I don’t know what his real name is, but we call him Mr. G. He is very nice. My old teacher wasn’t as nice as him. My old teacher wouldn’t take us on field trips during Outside Time. I like Mr. G a lot better than my old teacher.

The road was very busy. I hadn’t noticed how busy it was when we came to the park. I was too excited. But while we were waiting for the crossing guard lady, the cars were going very fast. And they were very loud. I was scared of the cars, so I reached up and held Mr. G’s hand. His hand was very big. He smiled at me, then we all crossed the street. Once we crossed the street, I wasn’t scared anymore, so I let go of his hand. I saw Mary nearby and walked over to her.

“Hi Mary,” I said.

“Hi Sarah,” she said back.

“Hi Sarah,” another voice said. On the other side of Mary was another girl named Jessie. Jessie was one of the Other Girls, and she did not like me. I didn’t like her either, but only because she didn’t like me.

“Did you hold Mr. G’s hand?” she asked suddenly.

“Jessie, that’s a weird question,” I said instead.

“Did you?” she insisted.

I nodded my head. “But I let go,” I said carefully.

Jessie gasped. “Sarah, Mr. G is a boy!” she said.

“So?”

“Sarah,” Jessie leaned over to me and whispered, “Boys have cooties!”

I stared at her. “What’s a cootie?”

“All boys have cooties,” Jessie said. “And if you touch too many boys, you get to many cooties. And to many cooties is poison to girls!”

“Is it, Mary?” I asked. Mary was one of the smartest people I knew.

She shrugged. “I’ve heard of cooties before, so she might be right.”

“It’s okay, Sarah,” Jessie said to me. “Just don’t touch any other boys.”

Finally we got back to school. After Outside Time was Art. I really like art, but I couldn’t stop thinking about cooties. I didn’t want to be poisoned. I just wouldn’t touch any more boys. I could do that.

Mommy picked me up from school that day. When we got home I went upstairs and played with my dolls. I have lots of dolls, but two of them are my favorite. Their name's are Nina and Carrie. They are the prettiest dolls in the world and are best friends, like me and Mary. Carrie and Nina were swimming in their pool when Justin came in my room. Justin is my big brother. He is a big kid. He can drive a car and goes to big kid school. None of the boys in my class can drive a car. I didn’t get to see Justin very much. He had something called a job so he could make money. I really liked it when I got to see him.

“Hey, Sarah,” he said as he came in my room.

“Justin!” I shouted, dropping my dolls and running towards him. He laughed and picked my up as I gave him a hug. But then I remembered what Jessie had said about boys.

“No, no cooties!” I said, wiggling out of his grasp. Justin put me down and smiled down at me, even though I could tell he was confused. “Jessie said not to touch boys,” I said, hugging myself.

“Why not?” Justin asked.

I looked up at him. “Because boys have cooties! And cooties are poison to girls!”

Justin stood up and laughed. I didn’t know why he was laughing. Did he want me to get poisoned?

“It’s not funny, Justin!”

“Sarah, cooties aren’t real!” he said when he was finished laughing.

“How would you know?” I asked. “They aren’t poisonous to you, you’re not a girl!”

He paused for a minute. “I guess I’m not,” he said. “How about you ask Mom instead?”

I thought about it. Mom was a girl. Cooties might be poisonous to her too. I needed to warn her.

I ran past Justin and down the stairs. Mom was in the kitchen, but before I could get to her I heard the door open. “I’m home!” Daddy said as he took off his coat. Mom came out of the kitchen and gave him a kiss and a hug.

“Mama!!” I said, horrified. Both Mom and Daddy turned to me. “Mama, Mama, stop, you’ll get poisoned!” I ran up and grabbed her leg.

“Why on earth would I get poisoned, Sarah?” she asked, putting her hand on my head.

“Mama, he’s a boy!” I said, looking at Daddy. Mom just stared at me. “Boys have cooties!” I whispered urgently.

Both my parents burst out laughing. Justin, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs watching us, started laughing too.

“What’s so funny?” I shouted over them. “Why is everyone laughing?” Nobody should be laughing. Mama and I were in danger.

Mom knelt down in front of me. “Sarah, cooties aren’t real.”

“That’s what Justin said, but I didn’t believe him, because he’s not a girl!”

“Cooties are all just made up,” Mom said. “Who told you they would poison you?”

I looked at the ground. “Jessie from school told me.”

Everyone laughed again, and this time I smiled with them. It was kind of silly.

“So can I hug Daddy without dying?”

He didn’t answer me. Instead he scooped me up and gave me a big bear hug. And I hugged

him back.

Author's Note

Please critique!

Reviews

[Nigel Newman]

Hi there. I'm pretty new to WC and I'm reading lots of different writing and offering comments just to sort of orientate myself. I did one recently for a story that I thought I'd filtered to 'recent' but the writer said they'd done it 6 years previously! So, in what follows, I'm hoping this story is a recent contribution and that you're still looking for feedback.

It's a few years since I was 4 years old, or knew children that age. So I wondered slightly whether the style was a little older than a 4 year old would do. But the more I read it, I came to the view that was a book for parents or teachers to read to young children, to help them overcome the sort of bogiemen stuff kids can get into. Once I realised that, then I viewed the story quite differently. I think a couple of drawings or illustrations might help, so the reader could show these to the children. There are also a couple of spelling and grammatical glitches (to many cooties [twice], their name's) which would need correcting, but obviously if it's read aloud then the listeners wouldn't notice.

I think my only other comment would be the abrupt end. My guess is you thought about the fairly obvious 'test and validation' final section which could have followed but chose to exclude it. This would have been about how Sarah almost deliberately touched or held hands with boys at school for weeks afterwards and never became poisoned, thus showing Jessie and Mary there was nothing to worry about, and becoming a stronger person herself. On a sort of subliminal level this might raise questions about whether a parent's reassurance is enough, or whether a child needs to then test and validate.

Anyway I hope these comments are helpful. Please get back if you need me to clarify anything, expand, etc

Regards, Nigel