She found an incredible connection to an event in which she had engaged once in a different time and place, a universe by its own right.
Wings
Two peppers
One act of kindness
A fly restored
Submitted for One Single Impression. Prompt: Kindness
Monday, March 10, 2008
Wings
Those were sweltering July days; the heat was suffocating and could throw anyone a little off kilter. This was when she committed her first conscious acts of cruelty to animals. Or rather insects. Come to think of it, she had probably been cruel to insects before, but never so deliberately, or with as much relish.
"The housefly (also house fly or house-fly), Musca domestica, is the most common fly occurring in homes, the most familiar of all flies and indeed one of the most widely distributed animals; it is a pest that can carry and transmit serious diseases."
The hot air stood completely still. The only thing that wafted through the open windows were flies, whole flotillas of them. No breeze whatsoever – only more and more flies. They took up residence in the house and buzzed about the windows, day and night. She couldn't sleep for the incessant buzzing. The insomnia started driving her insane – surely, this was the reason for her imminent transgression.
She would lie there in the dark, and the only thing she could hear was buzzing, buzzing; there would be a pause, and then more buzzing. After one particularly long night she had had enough. She went on a warpath with the swatter – she swatted and swatted, but the flies just seemed to keep coming. She tried sneaking up on them to try and catch some, but they were always too fast.
After several attempts, she found herself standing with her face to the wall with a fly crawling at her eye level. It paused and rubbed its two hind legs together, then the front two. What about the middle legs? She wondered how it cleaned those. Did it hold itself up on the back and front legs and rub them under its belly, or did it do a handstand, or perhaps stand up on its two hind legs? The enormous body of the fly seemed too fat for lift-off, yet it flew just fine.
She discovered that if she held her hand directly behind the fly as it was crawling up the wall – not above or in front where the millions of eyes could detect her – but just below the spot on the wall where the fly was crawling, it would not notice her. She clamped down a fingernail and pinned a hind leg between her finger and the wall. The fly buzzed like mad and tried to wriggle away. The thrashing of the fly tickled, and she almost released it on accident as she started giggling. But she caught herself and the fly was no match for her quick fingers. She held it up in front of her face and studied it.
Six hairy legs. Reddish, multi-faceted eyes. Two short antennae extending like a “Y” in front. Heavy, hairy body. Two sheer, silvery, fine-veined wings. Those beautiful, shimmering wings… She plucked one off. Then the other. Then she sat the fly down on the couch and watched it crawl around, wingless. Ha! Why don’t you try and buzz off now, you dirty little critter! she exclaimed silently. Oh, what’s that – you can’t buzz without your wings on?!
She did it to another fly. And then another and another. It was just too easy. Pretty soon, she had a whole little colony of about a dozen or so wingless flies crawling around the room like large, plump ants. And not one of them gave out as much as a choked buzz – not even a “z.”
It puzzled her how much she enjoyed this little act of sadism. But she told herself she had actually done the world a service – there would be no more insanity-inducing noise coming from these naked creeps, and yet she had let them live, hadn't she? What more could they ask, really? After all, they were the ones who had refused to shut up; come to think of it, they really had had it coming.
In the end, she couldn't stand watching them. She killed them all.
"The housefly (also house fly or house-fly), Musca domestica, is the most common fly occurring in homes, the most familiar of all flies and indeed one of the most widely distributed animals; it is a pest that can carry and transmit serious diseases."The hot air stood completely still. The only thing that wafted through the open windows were flies, whole flotillas of them. No breeze whatsoever – only more and more flies. They took up residence in the house and buzzed about the windows, day and night. She couldn't sleep for the incessant buzzing. The insomnia started driving her insane – surely, this was the reason for her imminent transgression.
She would lie there in the dark, and the only thing she could hear was buzzing, buzzing; there would be a pause, and then more buzzing. After one particularly long night she had had enough. She went on a warpath with the swatter – she swatted and swatted, but the flies just seemed to keep coming. She tried sneaking up on them to try and catch some, but they were always too fast.
After several attempts, she found herself standing with her face to the wall with a fly crawling at her eye level. It paused and rubbed its two hind legs together, then the front two. What about the middle legs? She wondered how it cleaned those. Did it hold itself up on the back and front legs and rub them under its belly, or did it do a handstand, or perhaps stand up on its two hind legs? The enormous body of the fly seemed too fat for lift-off, yet it flew just fine.
She discovered that if she held her hand directly behind the fly as it was crawling up the wall – not above or in front where the millions of eyes could detect her – but just below the spot on the wall where the fly was crawling, it would not notice her. She clamped down a fingernail and pinned a hind leg between her finger and the wall. The fly buzzed like mad and tried to wriggle away. The thrashing of the fly tickled, and she almost released it on accident as she started giggling. But she caught herself and the fly was no match for her quick fingers. She held it up in front of her face and studied it.
Six hairy legs. Reddish, multi-faceted eyes. Two short antennae extending like a “Y” in front. Heavy, hairy body. Two sheer, silvery, fine-veined wings. Those beautiful, shimmering wings… She plucked one off. Then the other. Then she sat the fly down on the couch and watched it crawl around, wingless. Ha! Why don’t you try and buzz off now, you dirty little critter! she exclaimed silently. Oh, what’s that – you can’t buzz without your wings on?!
She did it to another fly. And then another and another. It was just too easy. Pretty soon, she had a whole little colony of about a dozen or so wingless flies crawling around the room like large, plump ants. And not one of them gave out as much as a choked buzz – not even a “z.”
It puzzled her how much she enjoyed this little act of sadism. But she told herself she had actually done the world a service – there would be no more insanity-inducing noise coming from these naked creeps, and yet she had let them live, hadn't she? What more could they ask, really? After all, they were the ones who had refused to shut up; come to think of it, they really had had it coming.
In the end, she couldn't stand watching them. She killed them all.
Word of the day: Concatenate
con·cat·e·nate, vt
1. to connect separate units or items into a linked system
2. to link two or more information units, such as character strings or files, so that they form a single unit
adj
linked together in a sequence or chain
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
1. to connect separate units or items into a linked system
2. to link two or more information units, such as character strings or files, so that they form a single unit
adj
linked together in a sequence or chain
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Word of the day: Panoply
pan·o·ply, n.
1. an impressive and magnificent display or array of something
2. ceremonial dress with all the necessary accessories
3. a full suit of armor and equipment for a warrior
4. a covering that protects something
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
1. an impressive and magnificent display or array of something
2. ceremonial dress with all the necessary accessories
3. a full suit of armor and equipment for a warrior
4. a covering that protects something
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Mush Goes Haywire
She became aware that the way in which she tended to rattle off in class made her sound like she thought she knew something about things she didn’t necessarily know much, if anything about. She knew full-well that she was very green. It was just that having spent years feeling like her brain was turning to mush in a dead-end job and a sort of lethargic personal rut, she often felt like a kid in a candy store being exposed to this wealth of knowledge and ideas. Synapses were firing like crazy, albeit a little haywire, and she couldn’t help blurting out every time she thought she saw a connection, whether it was there or not. She should probably talk less and listen more, at least until she had some kind of foundation of knowledge to base her ideas on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
