Write the opening paragraphs for four stories that each start with the same question: "Why did you do that?" You must include a reference to a ruler in each opening.

1 -- Chef and Sous Chef

"Why did you do this?!" Chef shouted, his face red with anger.

I had woken this morning with what I had thought was an epiphany.  The soup, which was our signature dish at Cafe Electra had been flagging in sales for the last several months.  Our patrons wanted something new, fresh, and local, and I had awoken with the inspiration to create a soup that would be an instant sensation.  I just had to find a way to convince Chef that this was the way to go.

When Chef loudly rapped the ruler he always carried as a symbol of his culinary dictatorship on the edge of the pot , I knew I had a lot of explaining to do.


2-- Kids at a Playground

"Why did you do that?" Jen shouted at her friend Missy.  Jen's perfectly straight brown hair was filled with wet sand.  The normally perky bow in her hair was mashed flat and sand dripped in mushy clumps onto her shoulders and down her pink dress.

Missy stood frozen for a moment in horror and then giggled uncontrollably at the sight of her neat freak friend looking less than perfectly groomed, "I wasn't aiming for you," she gasped through her peals of laughter.  "I was throwing the sand at Dylan."

But Jen wasn't listening.  She wiped sand from her face, glared at me, and then marched off toward home with her back as straight as a ruler.



3 -- Married Couple

"Why did you do that?" Harry asked, his exasperation evident in his voice as he stared at the engine under the hood of their car.

"Well, the light came on on the dashboard, and I thought I was doing the right thing," Harry's wife of 15 years wrung her hands together.

"Why in the world would you think adding motor oil to the radiator would be the right thing?!"

"I'm sorry, dear," she began pleadingly.  "I think I saw it on "Car Czars" on the Ruler Channel."


4 -- Teacher and Student

"Johnny, why in the WORLD would you do that?" Mrs. Franklin's patience was thin during the last bell at school, and Johnny was one of THOSE children.   The children who who enjoyed pushing her buttons right up until the bell rang signalling the end of school.

Mrs. Franklin sighed and braced for Johnny's typically insincere and vague explanation.  She picked up the jagged plastic pieces of broken ruler from off the floor and waited, wondering why she even asked.

"I don't know, Mrs. Franklin," Johnny said his eyes wide and innocent.  He glanced at the clock knowing the bell was going to ring in one minute and preparing to run. "It was an accident?"