Screech!
Screech! Have you ever heard the sound of nails scratching across a chalk board? It makes me want to run all the way home and jump in my comfy bed and pull the covers up around my ears! Unfortunately, I’m usually in a place where I can’t run home very easily; like school. It is very difficult to listen to the sound of anything screeching or scraping.
It makes people shiver and cringe. A funny feeling shoots up my back and makes those little hairs on my neck stand straight out. Most people would agree that screeching, scraping, and sawing noises sound like someone who is in serious pain, screaming for help! Normally, I would try to help a person who is in pain, but the sound of screeching and scraping makes me want to get out of there quickly! One of the worst noises I can think of is the dentist’s drill. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit” he says, while shoving a metal drill in my mouth. The combination of the zinging noise of the tiny drill and the little puff of smoke that comes off my teeth sends me into a panic. I have to concentrate on the posters they have taped on the ceiling with pictures of hot air balloons or kittens to keep my mind off of that horrible drilling, zrrrrrreeeeeeee sound that is coming from the inside of my mouth.
Do they honestly think that air balloons and kittens will send me into a peaceful dream and make me forget the intense noise and smell of grinding teeth? I wonder if dentists like having their teeth drilled. I bet not. Fingers running sharply and slowly across a chalkboard are another sound that makes me cringe. I clench my teeth and squint my eyes, hoping the noise will stop soon. It is such a widely unaccepted noise, that it has become a popular joking way of “torturing” people.
In the third Pink Panther movie, the Investigator scrapes his finger nails across the chalkboard just to make the criminal confess…and it works!! What I can’t figure out is how the Investigator can tolerate the sound he is making. Doesn’t it make him want to run screaming into the night too? Another sound that makes me wince is when someone is sawing wood with a handsaw and the saw gets stuck in the wood and makes a really strange squeaking noise. It makes me get goose bumps on the back of my knees when I sit here and type this! That is the type of terrible power these sounds have over a lot of people, including me! One of the worst parts in “The Chronicles of Narnia” is when the White Witch’s army is sharpening their axe blades with a large turning stone that grinds down the blade into a fine weapon that could probably split a human hair if it was dropped onto the axe blade. I can only imagine if they used those axes to chop down a tree. The blade would get stuck in the wood, and here we go again! Screeching, scraping, and squeaking noises make me feel the same as eating ice cream with my two front teeth. I guess I’m too sensitive! Am I the only one who feels this way, or are there dentists, lumberjacks and teachers who feel the same?
