Dear everyone, today I have a treat for you! Instead of a poem, Im giving you a new short story of mine, entitled A Dream of Bugs. I hope youll enjoy it. :) Also, a disclaimer, as it contains some graphic portions. Once, in an apartment in the middle of a big city, there lived two friends. There was Laverne, an aspiring veterinarian with one year left to her master’s degree, and Malcolm, her best friend, who was technically unemployed. They had met in a store one year earlier and quickly found each other. Laverne had yearned for a good listener in her life, someone who wouldn’t mind paying attention to her many thoughts about the future, in which her veterinary aspirations figured prominently. Malcolm was the perfect fit for her, as his ability to listen was second to none. Laverne would sit next to him every day, her blue eyes glistening with joy as she told him about her day. Malcolm’s eyes, which were brown, would return the favor, following Laverne’s rapid movements as her arms flung about uncontrollably in excitement. One day, Laverne was especially wound up as she came home from a long day at university. ”Malcolm!” she shouted, ”I had a dream again!” She ran about in the apartment, throwing yesterday’s dinner (turned today’s lunch) into the microwave oven, pushing frantically at the buttons as if that would somehow make the oven work faster. ”I have to tell you all about it!” Malcolm knew what he was in for. He had heard her dreams before, and he hated them, for he found them very unsettling. But there was no way for him to intervene, so all he could do was to quietly accept what would happen next. Laverne threw off her purple jacket and black knitted cap, which had been a present from her always doting mother, and let her long, uncombed hair fall to her shoulders. ”Time for the dreamy dream story!” Laverne was giddy beyond belief as she sat down on a chair next to her dear friend. ”So Malcolm,” she said, ”you know how yesterday we dissected dogs in school? I think that’s why I had this dream last night. You know how dissection always gets my mind going, like, choo-choo, you know, like those trains you love?” Laverne imitated a moving train, fully illustrated with body language and sound. ”But there’s a twist!” she continued. ”This time there wasn’t a dog in the dream, or any other animal we’ve dissected before, it was a bunny! And not just any bunny, it was Bugs Bunny! You know why? I think it was because we watched those cartoons yesterday. That makes sense, right? You know how things we do and see can make their way into our dreams? Like they said in psychology back in grade school? I told you about that right?” Malcolm seemed to nod at the prospect. He never questioned Laverne, even though he often wished he could. ”So anyway,” Laverne continued, ”it gets even weirder than my dreams usually go, but I figure that’s a good thing, so that’s why I’m really excited, do you follow me? This one is even better, it’s like my dreams are evolving…” Laverne paused and looked deeply into Malcolm’s eyes. ”So in other words…” she whispered, ”my mind is evolving!” Laverne raised her arms into the air in triumph. Malcolm said nothing. ”Alright, so here goes. I am walking around in a garden, all casual, and suddenly I see Bugs Bunny. He comes up to me and says the things he says in the cartoon, ’What’s up, doc?’ and all that. And that’s funny to me because I am going to be a veterinarian, so I actually am a ’doc’, right?” Laverne paused to giggle. ”So I ask Bugs Bunny, the actual Bugs Bunny, ’Why are you called Bugs?’ because I mean, bugs are insects, right? That’s funny to me. Anyway, here comes the best part…” Malcolm shuddered. He hated when Laverne announced the ”best part”. ”So I ask him that,” Laverne continued once again, ”and he comes up to me and says ’Because, well, I don’t know, doc…’ and then his eyes start to bleed. I am looking straight into the eyes of Bugs Bunny, and they are bleeding, and he starts screaming out in pain. I ask him if he’s alright, and he can hardly hear me, because he’s bleeding from his ears too!” Laverne paused to snicker. ”And then he falls to his knees and begs for me to help him, and you know me Malcolm, of course I don’t help him! I want to see how things turn out, right?” Malcolm nodded, pondering whether to avert his eyes, but he knew better than to do so. Laverne didn’t like it when Malcolm looked away. ”Alright,” Laverne carried on, ”so Bugs Bunny is on his knees, bleeding from his eyes and ears, and oh, yes, from his mouth too. He can hardly speak anymore, because of all the blood, right? And he’s screaming out to me, he knows my name, he goes ’Laverne, Laverne, help me, please, doc, help me!’ and I kicked him a little. I mean, after all, it’s kind of rude to just ask things of people you’ve only just met. Those are not proper manners at all!” Malcolm felt sick, but he had to keep listening. What choice did he have? ”Then it happens, the very, very, best part!” Laverne paused dramatically, staring deep into Malcolm’s eyes while wielding a perfect smile. ”The bugs. Oh, the bugs, the bugs of Bugs Bunny, and it all makes sense, at last, all the cartoons and all my questions. Because then, Malcolm, bugs started crawling out from his body. There were moths flying out from his ears, there were huge spiders forcing their way out from under his swollen eyelids, and the most deliciously gross looking larvae drilled red paths out from under Bugs Bunny’s chest. And he keeps going, and these are his last words, ’Please, help me, I’ll do anything, Laverne, please…’ and then…” Laverne stood up, raising her arms to the sky. ”The trilobites!” Laverne shouted with glee. Malcolm had often been unsettled by Laverne’s stories of dissection and the death of animals, understandably so, but no dream had ever been this graphic. He had longed so many times to escape from her, but it never amounted to more than wishful thinking, and here he was, subjected to the declining sanity of the person he had no choice but to live with. ”The trilobites,” Laverne continued, ”the trilobites start eating their way out from inside him, emerging from his cute, fluffy mouth. Oh, by the way, do trilobites even have teeth? I keep forgetting. But hey, they did in the dream at least.” Laverne giggled. ”So anyway, Bugs Bunny is dying slowly, his tears forming solid crystals as he looks at me. Voiceless screaming…” Laverne paused as to absorb all the impressions. ”It was kind of beautiful, really. And inspiring…” Malcolm said nothing. He wanted to run away, more than ever he truly wanted to run away. But it was never possible. Laverne always had control. Laverne always knew where he was. Laverne always knew what he could do and what he could not do. Laverne. Always. Knew. ”So yeah, thanks for listening, Malcolm.” Laverne finished telling him of the disturbing dream. ”Oh, and speaking of this dream, I brought you a few things, you know, to show how much I appreciate you.” Laverne reached into her school bag and opened one of the smaller compartments. ”Ah, hm, yes, here we are…” She mumbled to herself. Eventually she found what she was looking for and placed the contents on a table next to Malcolm. ”Yes, here we go, needle, thread, a pair of scissors, got to have those, and ah, yes, this!” Laverne carefully extracted three small bottles, one with spiders, one with larvae and one with moths. ”I really tried but I couldn’t find any trilobites, oh, then again, I don’t really think they exist anymore…” She looked sad for a split second. ”But hey, at least I found the other bugs, and they weren’t easy to collect, so you better appreciate my hard work! Oh and yes Malcolm, I know that spiders aren’t technically bugs, no need to tell me!” Laverne smiled and got up from her chair. ”Anyway, I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere!” Laverne skipped happily away from Malcolm. Malcolm could see her laugh in the distance as he retreated deeper into the corner of his rabbit cage.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:39:59 +0000
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