Ice Nine
One time, in band class, I made this girl lose control of her clarinet. It all started a couple of weeks previously when our high school English teacher assigned us Kurt Vonnegut’s book, “Cat’s Cradle” to read. In it, there is a scene where the daughter of the main character is playing the clarinet as impending doom approaches her. This doom is caused by a substance known as “Ice Nine” which is quickly causing everything around her to solidify as water does when it turns into ice.
So there we were, in band class, struggling to perfect a piece for a upcoming concert. In the middle of this piece, my friend had a clarinet solo. She turned her page of sheet music in preparation to give the performance of her life. There, in the middle of her page, was a note that I had placed earlier. It was simple, in large print, and just two words: ICE NINE. It caught her completely by surprise and she immediately became silent. (In fact, she later told me that she had been imaging herself in the same situation as the character in the book. When she saw the note, a startling image flashed in her mind and she forgot to exhale for a few moments.) Some of the band members sitting to her sides and behind her were in our same English class. When they looked over to see why she stopped playing, they immediately burst out in laughter when they read the note. Our band director, already upset from the pressure of preparing for the concert, angerily stormed over to my clarinetist friend while madly waving his baton like a whip. Fortunately he had a sense of humor and had also read the book. With a crazy laugh, he returned to his podium all the while shaking his baton at me. How they knew that I was the culprit for this little joke is beyond me! ::: he said with a bambi-eyed look of innocence :::
This little walk down memory lane came to me when I learned the sad news that Kurt Vonnegut died a couple days ago. I don’t think that he knew how his works affected a small New Hampshire high school. Although given the depth of his imagination and the width of his wit, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Thank you Mr. Vonnegut for all of your incredible works.
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