After 18 hours carrying heavy luggage through 4 airports and 3 planes one ferry terminal and all around one drunken Finn packed ferry I was exhausted. I got home, threw my bags on my bedroom floor and without even taking off my coat or turning off the light I collapsed onto the bed.
Then it happened. Something smashed into my face. I jumped out of bed, stumbling onto to the floor and crouching, pretending to be a ninja ready to ward off whatever assailant was out to kill me. I looked at my clock. I had only been asleep for three hours. It was pitch black outside. My door was closed, what on earth could have hit me?
Then I saw it, an evil fluttering of powdered wings by my bedroom light. Oh, if only I had a ceiling fan than that blasted moth would have been cleaved in two! But no, I would have to take care of it myself. And of course, when you’re sleep deprived and exhausted there is only one logical way to kill an invading pest…Rubber bands.
I dug out my bag of rubber from under my bed and drew one out, as if it were a broadsword with which I would slay the hydra. I put one end on my right hand and pulled back with my left, took aim…FIRE! Dang, I missed. I tried again. And again. And again.
Half an hour later I nicked one of its wings. It was flying slower now. I would get it yet! No foolish insect could outsmart me!
An hour of stumbling over my luggage and getting stuck in my blankets later I finally got a direct hit and took down my tormentor. Huzzah! I was victorious! I went to gloat over the corpse of my defeated foe. I poked it.
It twitched.
Then it took off again. I didn’t sleep that night…
