Green Slime

The phone rang as I was preparing the leave for work. It was the secretary at the high school, telling me my niece had inadvertently sad in an “unidentified green substance” during chemistry class. She assured me that every effort was being made to identify the substance, but a different teacher had used the chemistry lab in the previous class period, and so they had to track her down. My niece appeared to be uninjured, but needed clean clothing. My concern was that a chemical could eat through her clothes and burn her skin. So, I drove up to the school as quickly as possible.

She removed her light blue jeans and examined the flesh of her legs. They appeared completely normal. I gave her clean clothes, and she went back to class. The school assured me they would notify me, as soon as the source of the green substance was determined.

I returned home and put on rubber gloves to wash out the jeans so the stain wouldn’t have time to set. I rinsed carefully with cold water, hoping not to ruin the fabric entirely. The phone rang again. The school secretary was laughing, as she told me that the mystery chemical was identified as green jello!