Short Stories about an Unexpected Family Dinner Guest: I Don't Do Bugs!

"Get it out of here!", she screamed as the moth flew crazily around the kitchen. "Kill it!!" The children sat at the table mesmerized as the moth flew over the table then proceeded to go straight for Rosie's head. "Get it out of here!", she screamed again as the moth dive bombed her reddish blond hair. Heels clicked madly as she did a little dance in the kitchen, trying to evade our unexpected dinner guest.

I laughed loudly at her as she gyrated around the tiny kitchen. I yelled,"It's just a moth Rosie. It's OK, I'll get it!", laughing as I grabbed a jar in the cupboard.

She looked madly at me like I was a leper and screamed again, " I don't care!! I don't do bugs! Get. It. Out. Of. Here.", emphasizing each word as if to make her point quite clear.

The children watched amazingly as I calmly trapped the moth on the counter. Gingerly flipping up the jar, I put my hand over the top so our dinner guest would not get away. The kids eyes got bigger as I brought the jar over to the table and proceeded to do a science lesson right there above each child's dinner plate.

"Ohhh grandma," little Zach chirped; "It's pretty!". Next Lizzie joined in and pushed her little nose as close to the jar as she could get. Then Seth took a turn, peering into the jar, staring at the wildly flapping creature.

The moth seemed to settle down for a moment and stared back at us through it's little glass prison. Weird but I could have almost sworn it took an extra minute when it's domed bug eyes looked at Rosie.

"OK," I announced, "Say good-bye to the moth kids. He's going back to find his house and family now."

The kids jumped up and down excitedly as I walked to the front door and made preparations to release our unexpected dinner guest. I removed my hand from the top of the jar and the moth jetted out into the dark inky sky. "Bon Voyage", I yelled out to him as his buzzing wings flew into oblivion.

The rest of dinner went without a hitch as we finished up supper and got ready to go to bed. The children excitably talked about our little dinner guest and wondered if he had found his family. I told them he probably had and by now they were probably getting ready for bed too. Assured that their little friend had made it home safe and sound, the kids fell off to sleep.

Rosie grumbled something about how, "Some people were crazy for trying to save a bug," then marched off to her room. Within minutes the house was quiet, save the ticking of the clock.

An hour later Rosie dreamed an odd dream. She was dreaming about bugs - lots of them. In her dream a little moth was staring at her with bug eyed revenge in his eyes. She sighed deeply in her sleep then woke up with a panicked feeling. Her heart was racing and she had the oddest feeling like someone was watching her. Peering around in the dark, she saw nothing odd and went back to sleep.

Just outside her window patiently waiting, a moth sat staring intently at her. Behind him the glow of 10,000 more sets of eyes just like his sat staring in her window too. Yes indeed, the little moth HAD found his family. And they were mad about what had happened to their little brother that night. Nobody threatened little Billy and got away with it.

Billy turned around to his family and gave them the signal they had been waiting for: "We don't do people!", came Billy's battle cry as they all flew in the open window of Rosie's room.

The last thing Rosie heard that night was the whirring of wings.

(Dorsi Diaz, the author, is a freelance writer, photographer and artist. This story is fictional and was based on some of Dorsi's true life experiences. Names and circumstances have been changed to protect the innocent and any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental. Dorsi writes on a broad series of subjects and most of her work is non-fiction)