"It happened again," Myriam said, as she entered the room. "I screwed up. I'm sorry." She collapsed on the couch, head in her hands. "I just wanted a sip. I thought I had a handle on this ... [+]
When I was in Grade Eight at Lakeview Elementary School in Regina, Saskatchewan, our teacher, Mr. Graham, used a miniature hand-cranked generator to demonstrate electrical current for us. We all held hands and formed a circle around the classroom. With the students closest to Mr. Graham holding the positive and negative leads, he slowly turned the little crank. We all began to feel a tingle as the current passed through us. We were all together for a moment, until it became too ticklish to bear. I haven’t seen some of those people since Grade Eight. Some of them are dead now. But we were one then, and in my heart we will always be.