I am the famous scientist, Katherine Perkins. Two months ago I made a revolutionary discovery. I was sent to do some research on a small town in Kansas. Its environment was astonishing. But I wasn't sent to vacation in this farmland. The real reason that I was there was because several citizens of the city were starting to feel a stinging pain. It had never happened before. But now, all of the sudden, all sorts of people were falling sick. When my boss, Professor Sawersmann, first told me of this news, I knew that it wasn't just the flu going around. I knew that this assignment was serious. Prof. Sawersmann told me that the city had been quarantined. No one left and no one came. This act had taken place because we didn't know if this sickness was contagious. So it just figures that they had to send me.

When I got to the airport, a mob of farmers had gathered around. Then they saw me, and they stormed around me. I noticed that only some of them were angry. I pushed through them. This was not going to be easy.

*****

I avoided all of the questions until I was checking into my hotel room. The manager asked me why I had quarantined the city. Then he told me that many people were losing jobs because of this act. Like him for instance. Then all of the anger left his voice. As he gave me the room key he wished me good fortune and to find the start of the problem. Then to find the solution. I thanked him and went up to my room. I fell sleep right away. Such a pity that all of these kind people were losing money because of me. The research would begin the next day. I would find the solution, and it would all be over with. And yet something told me that it wouldn't be quite that easy.

The next day, I was up before the first sign of dawn. The first part of the research was to sit down and route my way around the city. Then after I drew my way on a square of paper, I started out on the far side of town. The town was smaller than I had thought, because by noon I had already examined all of the inner city. I had found nothing that would be of any sort of help.

Then, by 7:30 PM I had gotten all of the farmers'(or their wives') permission to investigate their property. That would take place the next day, for I needed to get some sleep.

That night, I had a dream. It was one that not even a great scientist, like I, could interpret. But it was a sign and it gave me hope. I now knew that I was getting close to finding out something very important.

It was 1:47 PM. I had been in this poor excuse of a city for four days. It was the day before that I had started examining the real farmland. I had already covered eight fields. And after this one I had two more to go. This field belonged to an intriguing family. Mr. and Mrs. Keterin had four children. The two boys liked to play adventurous games and so they needed the atmosphere, and the two girls were probably the only people except for the Innkeeper, Doctor, and mayor in the city who knew how to read and write. In fact, they did it all the time. So they needed a good atmospheric area as well. So the Keterins owned a large plot of land. It had farmland, of course, some clumps of trees, and even a lake. Their land was indeed big. I had started examining this farm at 10:28 and I was almost to the lake. When I was almost finished with looking through about 42 feet of large weeds, I looked across the lake. I noticed a large clump of oversized cottonwood trees. It seemed like they were shedding, for there were seeds that looked like clumps of fur floating everywhere. The trees were about 100 meters from the far side of the lake. So I could not tell just how big the seeds were. Now I had finished with the weeds and was standing in front of the lake. There were a large number of the seeds in the lake. Once again, curiosity got the better of me. So I dove into the lake. I looked down and saw a bunch of seeds about eight inches wide. It appeared that they were moving towards me. Then all of the sudden they all shot out a long colorful object. The colorful strings wrapped around my legs. Then the creatures shot a transparent string that wrapped around my legs. After that came pain like I'd never felt before. It felt as if they were amputating my legs. I yelled for help with all my might and after a few minutes one of the girls came running up. I told Emily to get help. She ran pretty fast for a twelve-year old.

During my nine days in the hospital, I wrote up a profile about the animals. I classified them, and wrote down where their habitat was, and I even explained what they looked like. On the sixth day that I was in the hospital, Professor came in. I gave him the sheet, and told him to cancel the quarantine. He mumbled the words as he read them. "Stinging celled invertebrea because it is a baglike organism, shoots off threads that contain poison, and has no head. Lives in fresh water. Looks fluffy white like cottonwood seeds, has multicolored threads. Uses them to wrap around prey. Has clear threads that they wrap around the victim and are full of a stinging poison. Eats small birds, fish, and pretty much anything it can get a hold of. For protection, it bites or stings its predator. It is asexual. An adult divides into two to create new ones." Then the professor looked at me and said, "I have arranged for an award ceremony and it will take place here in fifteen minutes. It will obviously be small." Then he left the room.

Fifteen minutes later the Professor came once again into the room. He was followed by five other men and women. But for some reason my mind kept wandering. A while later the Professor caught my attention and said, "We have decided to honor you by letting you name the creature. What do you wish it to be called?" "Keterin. Paineous Seedeous," I whispered. A great cheer rose up. Then everyone but the Professor left the room. He turned and looked me over. Then he said, "You will be released in three days. We have discovered another serious problem. This one is around Tubruq in the Mediterranean Sea. I will give you two months to recover, pack and say your goodbyes." Then he left the room.

Now here I am on the airplane to Libya. I hope this one won't be as adventurous as the last one. I am writing this document so that in the future, after I am dead someone will read this. I have come to the end of the story so I will stop now.

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