Shoo

Lastnight (or shall I say this morning), at around 12:30AM when I had been snug in my bed sleeping for about an hour and a half, I was startled awake by shrieking from the bedroom down the hall. This was a little more frantic than "I peed in my bed" so I hopped out of bed and semi-sprinted (as well as one can at that time of night) to Lucy's room.

There she was, sitting on the foot of the bed, sobbing. I'm thinking night terrors, maybe she fell out of bed. "Oh honey," I said, "what's the matter?"

"There's a fly in here!"

Oh, lord. And as if on cue, the bugger swooped right by her head and she ran out into the hallway. She sat on the floor and demanded through her tears, "get it!"

So I trucked to the recycle bin to find something with which to attack, since no Target in the west metro seems to carry a fly swatter. I ended up with an empty box of Shore Lunch, which I folded in half and headed back to the bedroom.

Let me tell you something, trying to swat a fly in the wee hours of the morning without your contacts in is not easy. Not easy at all. I had to squint to even see the thing, and as I was following it with  my eyes, waiting for it to land, it would seem to disappear into thin air. It landed on the window sill and I swore I got it. I was even looking for it on the floor, but then saw it buzz past me. Another time it landed on the slightly open accordion closet door, in the uneven seam that makes it almost impossible to hit. Of course that didn't matter anyway, because I totally missed it.  I was swatting and flailing the air, and growing more frustrated by the second.

Just as I was wondering how on earth I was going to hit this thing, it flew out of the room. This of course prompted Lucy to run back in, and we shut the door. As we lay in her bed, she kept her blanket around her head so only her sad little eyes were peeking out. She was still relatively terrified. We talked about how when we leave the lamp on, if there is a fly in the house, it will want to come and be by the light. So I got her to agree to turn the lamp off, and turn on the ladybug nightlight instead. She took her arms away from her blanket only to place them around my neck and hang on for dear life until she fell asleep.

Oh, my baby. Although I'm damn tired, I'd battle flies to the end of the earth for you.