Story 8. Monsters
When my brother was young, he was afraid of monsters.
He didn't know what a monster was like or even what a monster really was.
Still, he was scared to death of monsters.
All he knew was that a monster is powerful, scary, and maybe evil.
You could tell him that a monster was coming, and he would run away to seek protection with our parents.
One day, he went with Mom to the university where she teaches.
There, he ran into an old professor named Jerry.
When he saw my little brother come in, Jerry asked, Little Bobby, are you afraid of monsters?
No, I'm not, my brother said, but he secretly still had his fear of monsters.
Listen, I have a big new monster in this building.
It's hiding in the basement and peeking at you, teased Jerry.
You don't have a monster, said my brother.
I'm not lying to you.
My monster is called X-Ray.
His powerful eyes can see through your skin right to your bones.
This really frightened my brother, and he ran away to find Mom.
When Mom learned that Jerry was using X-ray monsters to scare my brother, she laughed.
Oh, don't be silly.
There is no such thing as monsters, she said.
Let me explain.
An X-ray is like a light ray with a shorter wavelength.
It's a kind of electromagnetic wave.
It's just radiation emitted from some kind of material.
It's similar to the waves that allow us to see the images on the television and listen to the radio.
You'll learn about it when you grow up, and when you learn about and understand x-rays, you will not fear them anymore.
Seeing Bobby's eyes open wide as he listened carefully, she continued, "X-rays are not the most powerful radiation."
There are other kinds of rays, such as gamma rays, which are much stronger.
On learning all of this, my brother became excited.
He spent the rest of the day planning how to scare Jerry with his newly discovered monster gamma ray.
