Ode to the Death of 8

It was pitch black in the very early hours of the morning. Hours when some of the teenage kids would finally be finding their way to bed. Skelly felt a pinch that came out of the middle of nowhere, followed by a sudden surge of itchiness. The type of surge where that itch was felt like fire and wasn’t planning on going away anytime soon. As she shone light on the injured area, she saw the smallest bump starting to burst forth. Then PINCH… it all happened again.

“Seriously,” yelled Skelly. The enemy was back but Skelly wasn't going to back down from this fight. Furious, she reached for her racket. Skelly hadn’t been looking for this magic weapon, when it basically found its way to her just appearing on her doorstep one day, days before she would ever need to use it. It took a while to get used too, but after a little practice and lesson or two from her teacher, she found a technique that worked. Her teacher usually just swooshed the dreadful enemy away, but Skelly knew this wouldn’t work. They would just keep coming back, so she opted for the elimination. As Skelly entered into the fantasy world of Mayhem with her Lighting Racket. This enemy that had been attacking night after night needed to be defeated before it went out and found another victim. Skelly knew this enemy was attacking others in the area as well. They were small, but made a large army. They were fast too, vanishing as quickly as they had appeared. Many times one never knew the enemy was present until they were wounded and their skin started to swell into a small or big bump depending on damage the enemy had done.

Waving her faithful lighting racket around ferociously in the air, Skelly all of a sudden heard the roar of a ZZZAAAAPPP! ...Then silence. The enemy had entered the deathening clutches of the lighting racket! After defeating 7 other of her killer enemies who met face to face with Skelly’s lighting racket, peace fell upon land once again....Until the next night.

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Yep that’s right as you can imagine my life has been filled with dreadful mosquitoes in the evening, and fantasy fiction audiobooks throughout the days (Thank you Andrew Peterson with The Wingfeather Saga). Temperature has reached 90-100 degree Fahrenheit, perfect for the tiniest of enemies..Mosquitoes! Some may say I’m exaggerating in this story, but some days this mosquito mayhem feels just like real life. During this exact night of killing 8 mosquitoes, it seemed like a night of torture with very little sleep. In order to keep myself from succumbing to an awful, grumpy mood, I came up with this story, naming it Ode to the Death of 8. A little exaggeration mixed with fantasy fiction heroes, suddenly seems to make the whole story humorous.

Interestingly, the mosquito drama here is different than in the States. Here, they are amazingly fast and disappear often. Their bite stings with sudden itchiness, but doesn’t last more than an hour or two. Back in the states, I remember the painful itching settling in a bit later and lasting for a week. I am just hoping I can stay sane as I meet mosquito after mosquito, conquering each battle that comes my way. Advice to those just starting to embark on this mosquito mayhem season, get yourself a lighting racket!