I awake to the electronic sound of an iPod’s alarm. I reach into the darkness and, finding my iPod, quickly shut off the alarm. I check the time: 5:30AM; it is about time to get up and start the day. However, I cannot find the will to lift myself up. Thus, I lazily turn over to shut my eyes for a few more minutes; I plan to get out of bed after a brief rest in my warm blankets.
Bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz!
I awake to an annoying, mad buzzing. I reach into the darkness and, finding my iPod, quickly shut off the alar-
It is already off. The time reads 6:00AM.
I had actually planned to get out of the house by 6:10AM in order to catch my buses. I am running late – breakfast will be a luxury I will have to purchase on my way to school.
Immediately, I spring forth from my bed as though it was of hot coals and hurriedly put on my glasses.
Bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz!
I am suddenly looking around, calm as death, for the source of the buzzing. Seeing a wasp near the window of my bedroom, I quickly turn around to my desk, pick up my brother’s “Popular Science” magazine, roll it up, take a few strides to the window (still calm as death on its way to reap a soul), then
SMACK
I missed.
SMACK SMACK
The wasp is hovering in the blinds and so I cannot see its exact
SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK
location – oh, it is on the carpet.
Looking at it now, I can clearly see that it is still alive, perhaps barely. It lies on the ground before me, its little legs twitching like a lunatic’s. Perhaps it is seeing the last rays of life through its disgusting compound eyes (wait, scratch out disgusting – replace with REVOLTING – sorry, no, that is not correct either – putrid? No, just different I suppose), perhaps it is in unimaginably excruciating pain. Probably. As it lies there, on the ground, the quintessentially quivering wasp invokes a feeling of pity from within my cold, dead heart (ha, just kidding – it is very much warm and alive). Did it really deserve this fate? Indeed, it was what had awoken me from my slumber which I had re-entered by mistake. However, I did have to protect both myself and my brother from its wrath.
That was the joke; this bug could have been a minor nuisance at most.
But, could a primitive animal like the wasp feel wrathful? Could it be filled with hate and loathing like humans? Could it act on such emotions? Does a wasp have emotions at all, considering its tiny size? Perhaps it may not be large enough to house the complex hormone-secreting organs that, for example, a human has, in which case I would doubt that this wasp that lies twitching before me feels any sort of emotion. Perhaps this thing does not even feel pain – unlikely, considering how it, even now, is trying to escape its predicament, despite its condi
SMACK
and for good measure
SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK
It is still moving. Enraged, I pour all of my hate for life into one furious
SMACK
and now it is dead, for it has stopped moving.
Something goes off in my brain. As calm as a tranquil vista of a valley with tiny birds singing their songs and a small stream trickling merrily along, I step back to my desk to check the time.
6:10AM.
I immediately dress, retrieve my backpack from the corner of the bedroom, take my iPod, shove my earphones into my ears, and race out of the house without having a bite to eat and without having brushed my teeth; it takes nearly fifteen minutes to make it to the bus stop, after which only two more minutes will remain before the bus arrives to pick up and drop off travellers. I will be forced to sprint on an empty stomach and with a filthy mouth to make it to the bus stop on time.