cardiovascular system

Do you remember that day in grade school when your treacher, with her glasses resting on the tip of her nose as she peered down into your naive little eyes, shattered your perception of reality? She came into your life uninvited and, with words like a sledgehammer, smashed everything you thought to be true. You would think that they would train teachers in tactful conflict resolution or breaking the truth in a gentle, non-confrontational way. But no, she just lays it all out there like a surgeon displays a corpse on the cold autopsy table for all to see. She explains to you, in the most maternal voice she can muster, how your heart really ins't the pretty red shape you practiced coloring inside the lines on for homework last week, but that it's actually a big, disgusting, chunk of pulsing muscle. Your stomach drops and your ears go deaf. You can see her plump, overly-red lips moving but you can't hear another word she is saying until the wretched sobs of heart-broken classmates welcomes you back to the real world. Do you remember that day? That was the day that Santa fell off his sleigh and drowned in the Atlantic Ocean en route to the needy kids in Africa. Do you remember that day? That fateful day that you began to question your faith in your parents. If they lied to you about this huge, life-altering scientific fact, what else were they lying to you about? What if the stork didn't really drop you off at their doorstep? And what if that balloon you let go of was burned up by the sun and didn't really make it to heaven? And then she proceeded to inform you that it was just a small part of some big, bloody system with tubes and veins. And she commanded you to listen as this chunk of meat pushes the gorey mess through your whole body. Do you remember that day? That is the day that the Tooth Fairty was squashed under a little boy's pillow as his head rolled on top of her fragile body while she collected his baby teeth. Do you remember that day? When seconds seemed to last an eternity as you anticipated some kind of heart failure. You couldn't take your mind off your beating chest for fear that it might suddenly and inexplicabably just stop working. All the other kids were laughing and having a good time on the bus ride home but you were too busy concentrating on feeling your pulse the whole ride to join in with them. Do you remember that day? The day your heart became a ticking time bomb. That was the day that the Easter Bunny ventured into open season territory looking for a shortcut home from a long day of hidding eggs. Do you remember that day? Well I do, and I have never looked at a Valentine's Day card the same ever since.