Brad buzzed his tiny insect wings and scored a perfect landing, touching down with his six thin, spiky legs on a wide brick ledge encasing the barbecue grill in the backyard.
“We really should do more entertaining,” he thought to himself as he maintained his optimism while he surveyed the yard from his perch on a grill that Mark had installed the previous summer.
A buzzing sound from another pair of wings disturbed his thoughts. His faceted eyes fastened on a much larger yellow-and-black winged insect cast a dark shadow as it hovered over the brick surface. Brad watched uneasily as the wasp zoomed and careened closer, its actions appearing designed to flush him into flight.
After testing his resolve, the other insect landed and loomed over the disadvantaged scientist. A pair of blade-like mandibles scissored as the wasp worked its mouthpart open and closed.
“Get away,” Brad buzzed his own wings, but the larger insect didn’t seem to hold the smaller one in any esteem. Brad watched closely as the wasp turned, exposing a long, needle-like stinger at the end of its abdomen to the nervous little fly.
With lightning speed, the wasp launched itself at him, trying to grasp him with its legs as the mandibles clacked together loudly.
Brad produced a terrified mental shriek and fought back, trying to disentangle himself from the wasp’s embrace. He succeeded, launching into flight to escape the other insect. The wasp reacted, taking flight itself and giving pursuit.
Brad trusted his instincts and let his inner fly take over his flight, spiraling around obstacles and doing his best to keep out of the clutches of the huge hornet.
The menacing bug, however, had an advantage in size, strength and determination, keeping close on his tail. Brad flew toward his home, hoping the wasp might not want to get to close to the structure, but that failed to shake off the pursuing monster.
Desperate, he veered and headed toward the fence between his yard and the neighbor’s garden. As he crossed into the enormous garden an enormous shadow swooped over him.
With one snap of a giant bill, a colossal bird snatched the wasp out of midair and flew off, vanishing into a row of trees, presumably to consume its morsel.
Brad, even more terrified at the dimensions of the bird that had so easily disposed of the monstrous wasp, landed on a garden stake supporting some of his neighbor’s prized heirloom tomatoes and began to regret his decision to “escape” to the outdoors.
“I might have stood a better chance with Papi,” he speculated.
He’d just have to be careful until Mark returned. Not for the first time he wondered what was delaying his husband.
A breeze delivered a scent that made every fly fiber of his being jolt and take notice. Brad’s little proboscis drooped and drooled. His wings leapt back into action, carrying his little body toward the source of the odor.