Skeleton

Flash fiction (very short story)

© 2023, Tanweer Dar

"Wow!" the kid gasped, taken aback by the sight of the skeleton on display at the front of the classroom. "Is that... Is that real?"

"Oh yes," the teacher replied, the slightest of smiles playing across his face. "Very real, I can assure you."

"Where did it come from?" the student asked, standing there in his oversized uniform.

"Well," the teacher, pushing his glasses up with his forefinger, began to explain, "Sometimes, people donate their bodies for scientific research."

The boy looked into dark, empty eye-sockets of the skull.

"So someone said they wanted their body used for science and when they died you got their skeleton?" the boy asked, his eyes still fixed on the skull.

"No," the teacher laughed. "I said sometimes..."