Saturday, January 21, 2023

Eavesdropping (True story)

Eavesdropping

By Myra Khanna



I am always listening, whether I am supposed to or not. I feel like there are six different sections in my brain. Section one is for all the stuff I learn at school. Section two has the stuff that I need to know, for example, breathing, or walking. Section three is my hobbies, like writing or making art. Section four is for all of the random facts I collect while reading or watching videos. section five is for the information I gather while listening to other people’s conversations. And section six is for music.


Some people think section one would win a science competition, others might argue that section four would lead to being victorious, but not many people would assume that section five would be the winner. 

A few weeks prior to the competition, I was heading back from Patel Brothers, (An Indian supermarket,) with my mom. We sat in her car, with her driving steadily, and me looking out the window. I heard a faint buzz in front of me and when I looked in the direction it was coming from, I saw my mom’s phone, someone was calling her. I leaned forward, just enough so I could tap her on her shoulder. “Your phone.”  I said, nodding to where the phone lay buzzing. My mom nodded and picked it up with one hand, making sure to continue driving. 

“Hello?” She said, and started to talk. I zoned out after this, because it didn’t really seem like something I needed to listen to. After about five minutes, my mom was still on the phone, so I decided to listen in. I strained my ears to hear what the man on the other end was saying.

“You have to get rid of standing water, so the mosquitos cannot lay eggs.” The man buzzed, he was the mosquito guy who was supposed to help us with our mosquito problem. I kept this information in section five. Soon after that, my mom hung up and the ride back was silent.

Three weeks later on a random wednesday…


“What if we get NOTHING correct!” I said in an agitated voice, Vedh, my Science Olympiad partner, rolled his eyes, but I could tell he had similar concerns. The two of us walked into a room with four other kids. I took a deep breath, and sat down, pulling out my computer, Vedh did the same.

“Everybody, log on.” The teacher in the front said. With my hands shaking, I slowly logged onto the site where I would take the test for disease detectives. 

You will be fine! You have been studying for two months! I thought to myself. I clicked on the link that said ‘Disease Detectives’ and a big start button appeared. 

“You have thirty minutes to answer as many questions as you can, ready, get set, start!” The teacher said, then she walked out of the room. 

“Three-two-one.” I whispered to Vedh, It was the countdown to press start. A new page opened. 

The first question was multiple choice, ‘what is a disease that travels to more than one country? A.) Epidemic. B.) Pandemic. C.) Endemic. D.) Chain of infection.’ I grinned, this was easy. “B, Pandemic.” I whispered to Vedh, He nodded and clicked B. The rest of the test we solved, some of them we were’t sure about, but we solved them. 

The last question was the hard one, ‘What are three ways to prevent malaria?’ My heart stopped, my breath turned shaky. Looking at how many points this question was worth didn’t help. Six points. This was the winning question, to get first place, I had to answer this.  

My heart sped up and there was a huge avalanche of thoughts. I tried to think of something that could actually help.

I don’t need any of this, Something about mosquitos! Wait! My common sense came to the surface. MOSQUITO REPELENT! I let out a giggle and typed it onto the text box. Malaria is caused by mosquito bites from a specific mosquito, so mosquito repelent may keep those mosquitos away! I tried to think of something else. Maybe there is a Malaria Vaccine! 

“Malaria vaccine.” I said out loud.

“Is there a Malaria vaccine?” Vedh asked.

“Maybe, It’s better than nothing.” I said as I typed it in.

“That’s only two, we need three.” Vedh said, “And we only have two minutes left.”

I gasped. What! We had five minutes left when we started this question! It was time to go back into my brain and find the last answer. 

I started to think of the sections. Maybe I heard something about mosquitos? I thought of some of the stuff in section five. The talk with Mosquito man! Get rid of all standing waters! Quickly, I typed it in. 

“Are you sure?”  Vedh qsked. I nodded. 

“It’s the best thing so far.” I said, and he nodded. The time ran out, our test was submitted, and everyone walked out of the room.



Two Weeks later on a Random Saturday…

I was Having my lunch and reading a book, my mom was on the couch, on her phone. I was on the good part of the story, my mom called me over.

“They are announcing the winners of disease detectives!” She said, I quickly ran over all my brother's toys on the floor and sat beside my mom. In the video, there was a square in the corner that had a teacher in it. The rest of the screen showed the place and the group who made it. Once they got to the disease detectives portion, I held my breath. “In eighth place, we have Isabelle and Kayla, '' the teacher said as their names appeared on the screen. My heart beat loudly as the rest of the teams were called, until there was only first place left. 

“It’s okay ifyou don’t get a medal.” My mom said, I nodded, I had no hope of getting first place and I was crushed. 

“And for first place…” The teacher said, I turned and started to walk away, I didn’t want to listen to this anymore. “Myra and Vedh!” I froze and turned back around. 

“I-I won.” I said. My mom nodded, grinning. The rest of that day was full of celebrations. Going out to eat, having a lot of sweets, and staying up late doing whatever I wanted to. I will always remember that day, And the malaria question that I was certain had helped Vedh and I win, and we only solved the question because of section five and me  eavesdropping on my mom.

 

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