The Cold (An Easy English Story): Part 4
After breakfast with Mom, I go upstairs. It’s only 6:30, but I can’t wait any more. I turn on my computer and desk lamp. My desk faces the window, and I look outside at the dark winter morning. A thin pink ribbon of light stretches behind the mountains. It will be a beautiful sunrise soon.
Where should I begin? A journalist finds the best information from many different people, so I decide to look on different social networking sites to see who is writing about the bodies.
There are more social media posts than expected.
On just one site, hundreds of posts appear when I search “dead bodies found outside.” It seems that on the Internet, people are using the name #icebodies. I enter #icebodies into the search bar, and thousands of posts appear.
Many posts are not interesting.
@yuki925: OMG! This is crazy! What’s happening?!?!?!
@chessman: thanks #icebodies for this lockdown!! no work for a week!!!!!!
I read the posts for one hour. I begin to see a pattern. About half of the people are scared of the ice bodies, and about half of the people do not believe the ice bodies. Many people have strong ideas and opinions.
@kycm71524: The ice bodies must be prisoners from jail. The jails did not want to pay for the prisoners, so they killed the prisoners. Wake up, America! Our jails are evil.
@aaa888: The ice bodies are not real. The news is boring, so journalists made a fake story. They want to get famous.
@yestolove: people are dying because they are sad… their hearts are cold, so their bodies are cold… we need more kindness!!!
@jimmywilder1980: I never saw an ice body. They are NOT real. Let’s go back to work.
There are so many ideas. Many stupid ideas, too. I count the “believe” posts and the “don’t believe” posts. It takes four hours, but I finish.
There are 3,862 “believe” posts. Most of the “believe” posts are not interesting. They only say, “I’m scared!” or “Why did these people die?” About 25% of the “believe” posts have ideas about why the ice bodies appeared. Most of the reasons are about disease. People think that there is a new disease like COVID-19. Some of the reasons are about the government. People think that the president wants to kill these people. Or another country is trying to kill Americans.
There are 433 “don’t believe” posts. Most of the “don’t believe” posts don’t have a reason. Some of the “don’t believe” posts say that the ice bodies are fake images from the government, from the news, or from other countries. Interesting. The government and other countries are reasons for both “believe” and for “don’t believe” posts.
Finally, there are only 17 posts from people who saw the ice bodies. I want to send a message to these people. Their stories are the most important.
@april.may: Do NOT go near Parker Street today. There are two ice bodies there. I called the police, and the police were scared too. Stay safe.
Parker Street. That’s the street where I saw the bodies. Is @april.may the angry woman from that day? I click on her username and send her a message.
Hello, my name is Ari Brooks. I am a journalist. I saw the ice bodies near Parker Street. I was on the bus that day. I want to write about the ice bodies for my job. Could we talk about what you saw? My phone number is 555-739-2080. Please call me any time.
I sent a similar message to the other 16 people. I hope they will reply soon.
It is 3:55. I have to call Ms. Sato at 4:00. She wants to talk with me about today’s work.
I realize that I am still in my pajamas. I put on a white sweater and gray jacket, and I quickly brush my hair. There is only one minute before the call, so I stay in my fuzzy snowman pajama pants and turn on my video camera. Ms. Sato joins the video call right at 4:00.
Ms. Sato starts talking about work right away. She does not have a “small talk” personality. “So, what stories did you get today?”
I feel embarrassed. I spent a lot of time reading the social media posts. I didn’t talk to anyone. I sent the messages at 3:30, so of course no one replied.
“Well… I found a lot of interesting opinions on social media.” I opened my notebook and began to read my data. “I read 4,312 posts about the ice bodies. 3,862 of these people believe that the ice bodies are real. 433 of these—”
Ms. Sato sighs. “Of course the ice bodies are real. We are a news station. We report real news. We can’t write an article that says, ‘Maybe the ice bodies are real, but maybe they aren’t.’”
Fun for Fluency! 