Kid-Chain Fence-Shocking

“Hey guys,” five-year-old Kerry greeted her older siblings. “What are you gonna do today?”

The older four sat around the breakfast table trying to finish their corn flakes before it got soggy. The sun was shining in through the windows above the sink and stove which provided enough motivation for the children to finish their breakfast in an efficient manner. There hadn't been an over abundance of beautiful spring days at that point in the season and the Henning five didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to enjoy it on that particular Saturday.

“I'm not sure,” Caleb replied with a mouth full of cereal. “I'm sure we'll figure something out.”

The children finished their cereal and drank the left over milk from their bowls. Caleb and Scott pipe. There were three swings and a pare of parallel bars that ran from the swing set to the summer house.

The three swings were occupied immediately by the younger three children. Caleb swung back and forth across the parallel bars while Scott ran the gauntlet through the moving swings. Sometimes he was able to get all the way through the improvised obstacle course in one shot but usually he had to stop in between swings and suck his gut in so as to avoid an unusual weight loss technique. Every once in a while, one of his sibling clipped his shoulders sending the swing into an erratic and twisted trajectory. This was the cause of an occasional grunt on Scott's part and peals of laughter on the part of the colliding sibling.

After a while, the children got bored and found themselves congregating by the south barrier of the barnyard in front of the big red bank barn. Occasionally, the children would hang around there in an attempt to get some of the members of the family's dairy heard to take grass from their hands. The animals were elsewhere on this particular day and were unavailable for feeding. Caleb walked up to the fence and absentmindedly reached out and grabbed the wire between two barbs. Scott reached out and gave his older brother a good natured shove just as the pulsing fencer sent a charge through the wire. (The fencer was the box that regulated the charge that was sent through the fence to discourage the cows from pushing through the fence. The fencer sent a charge through the fence every second. The charge pulsed to prevent any danger to the animals or in this case, the children.)

“Ow!” both boys exclaimed as they jumped away from the barnyard.

“That hurt,” Caleb continued. “Wait, why did you yell?”

“Because I got shocked to,” Scott replied, eyes wide with surprise. “Why did I get shocked? I wasn't touching the wire.”

The boys looked at each other, both equally eager to figure out the answer to this very important question. They looked at their younger three siblings who had been watching intently and then back at each other with a nod of agreement. Scott reached out and took Kelsey's hand in his left an Caleb's hand in his right. Caleb breathed deeply, psyching himself up for what he was about to do. He reached out and grabbed the fence again. The three children waited for a second before jumping simultaneously away from the fence shaking the shock out of their hands.

“Ow!” Kelsey exclaimed. “Why did you shock me, Scott? That was mean.”

“You got shocked too?” Scott asked his whimpering sister.

“Yeah,” she replied with a pouty face. “That hurt.”

“Hmm,” Caleb mused. “I guess the shock goes all the way through. I wonder how far it will go...” he finished as he glanced at his youngest brother and sister. 

He looked at Kelsey and nodded at his youngest brother, Luke. 

“Kelsey,” he began. “Hold Luke's hand, will ya? And Luke, hold Kerry's hand.”

“I don't know if I want to do this,” Kelsey muttered as she reached for Luke's hand.

“Oh, don't be such a baby,” Scott teased as he grabbed her hand. “It's just a little shock.”

“Lukey,” Kerry began. “Why comes you holdin' my hand?”

“I don't know,” Luke muttered. “Cause Caleb told me to, I guess.”

Caleb, having come to the conclusion that there was continuity across the sibling chain, reached out and took the electric fence firmly in his grasp. The resulting shock was nearly immediate. All five children yelled and screamed in unison as the electricity passed through them. They jumped back, causing the younger two children to land on their rumps in the grassy strip between the barnyard and the drive.

“Owie,” Kerry wined. “That hurted my hand.”

“You felt that, Lizzy?” Caleb prodded in true scientific fashion.

“Yes I did,” she responded. “And I didn't like it.”(Kerry answered to both her real name and the nickname Lizzy. Her middle name was Elizabeth. Her nickname was assigned to her to alleviate the confusion that was caused by the question “Who's going to carry Kerry?”)

The older four Hennings laughed at their sisters response to the experiment. Kerry maintained her pout as long as she could, but eventually joined in with the rest of her siblings. Once the good humor had fully returned to the group, Caleb set about to verify their findings with a duplicate experiment. He didn't say what he was doing when he held out his hand to Scott, but everyone but Lizzy was well aware of the plans. Once the sibling chain was reestablished, Caleb grabbed the fence one more time. The results were exactly the same as before. The shock pulsed through the children causing the five of them to exclaim and jump back from the fence. Four out of five of them laughed while the fifth just got up, crossed her arms, and turned towards the house.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Scott called after his baby sister. “Where are you going?

“I am done. Period,” she replied forcefully. “You guys tricked me again. You knowed I didn't want to get shocked again but you shockded me any ways.”

Scott looked as his brothers and sister and shrugged his shoulders. 

“I guess she's done,” he commented nonchalantly. 

“We'd better go with her so she doesn't get us in trouble,” Caleb chuckled.

“You think we're gonna get in trouble?” Kelsey asked with some concern in her eyes.

“Only if we can't make her happy before she gets to the house,” Scott replied as the four of them took off after their little sister.