In Ridgewood, New Jersey, the sun shines brightly upon the city but ominous dark clouds to the east threaten a storm. At Somerville Elementary School there is a huge crowd gathered. 814 people, students, teachers, friends, and relatives alike, gather to join the challenge. They are all sitting in a circle on the damp grass surrounding the track. Two young sixth-grade girls started the idea of this amazing challenge. Two blue eyed eleven-year-old best friends AnnaMarie and Morgan are at either the start or end of the “Chinese whispers” circle. Blond haired AnnaMarie, in a pink dress with bright blue, orange and yellow polka dots on it, is at the start of the chain. She starts the message by cupping her hand around the multi-pierced ear of the teenage boy to her right. The Asian, with a blue and black striped mohawk spiked so high it looks as if it is defying gravity, passes the message on. Words are heard then whispered as the phrase flows from lip to ear and over again. There is virtually no noise except for the chirping of birds and wind blowing through the trees. Occasionally someone has to cough, maybe sneeze, but silence is what makes this feat so challenging. Every person, young child to old grandparents, waits silently to feel the tickle of their neighbor’s lips on their ear.

The cool early spring breeze spirals between their still bodies. Some hair ruffles, other wisps around its owners face. Each individual persons separate aroma now blends together in a mix of sweet cotton candy, natural pine, and alluring rose. The atmosphere is alive with the immense anticipation as the two-word phrase makes its way around the circle. The same taste was, is, or is going to be in every person’s mouth: Stop diabetes.

The black clouds are moving faster towards the group. Suddenly, the brilliant yellow sun is obscured. The participants look up at the now darkened sky as miniscule droplets of rain start to fall on them. They sigh and some of the children whine but at the beginning of the event, they were given specific instructions to stay put and not to talk unless a thunderstorm rolls in. Observers get out the tent that they had stored a few feet away just in case this sort of thing would happen. It takes all of the observers to set up the canopy over the huge circle, but in the end it’s all worth it. As soon as the last person had finished pounding the last stake into the ground, rain started pouring down like water out of a bucket. The observers ran to save the food on the picnic tables meant for the members of the circle. They stepped over the crowd and moved the food to the middle of the human circle.

20 minutes later the rain starts letting up but the clouds stay put. Morgan, her chocolate colored hair blowing lightly around her face is fidgeting slightly because of sitting still for so long. She hears the phrase and she shouts it over a loudspeaker. Everyone jumps up from his or her sitting positions and starts cheering. The two best friends who started it all are being glomped with hugs from all of their friends and even people they don’t know. A piece of a giant cake is passed to all 816 people from the now broken circle and amazingly enough, there is more to spare. The observers and volunteers that helped with the tent also get pieces of the cake. Nobody can believe it, but this small town from New Jersey just broke the world record!

©2007 Stefanie Czyzyk