While still debating his next move, Brad’s strange insect eyes fastened onto a human juggernaut moving slowly toward him.
He had had five days to come to terms with the sheer immensity of his formerly fellow humans, but this encounter gave him pause. His pinhead-sized brain had to process the sensory input being sent by his odd eyes, but he felt a jolt of recognition as he studied the enormous face.
He knew the man!
“Paul!” He buzzed closer, recognizing his next door neighbor.
Paul was walking alone, with no sign of his partner, Ivan. Brad had always thought Ivan more attractive than the slightly shorter Paul, but all things now being blown far out of proportion, Paul looked incredible in his hugeness.
He was also seized with a giddy realization as he celebrated his good fortune at this unexpected encounter.
He could simply hitch a ride back with Paul. Once back in his neighbor’s yard, the journey back to his own home would be a simple one, even for a tiny housefly.
Paul, out for a morning walk, didn’t slow his pace, especially not for a buzzing insect that existed far beyond his notice.
Brad, however, pushed his wings, increased his speed and gave chase, feeling powerful currents of air collide with him as he followed in Paul’s wake.
Despite a long stride, Paul’s leisurely pace was no match for Brad’s determined flight. Paul, walking along at about three miles per hour, was easily overtaken as Brad zipped along at five miles per hour. He closed the gap with an even faster burst of speed.
His rapid beating of his wings (about 1,000 times per second) created a shrill buzzing noise. Before Paul reacted, Brad zipped closer, diving down toward Paul’s right shoulder.
He aced the landing, bringing his six tiny limbs into contact with the fabric of Paul’s tee shirt.
An thick atmosphere of musk, deodorant and cologne clogged Brad’s fly senses and kept his mind on an unbalanced keel, helped by his awe regarding Paul’s sheer power and immense size.
“Thank you!” Brad buzzed happily as the distance diminished with each step Paul took.
In no time, Paul approached an immense structure that finally rezzed in Brad’s strange new vision as an enormous house. Instead of heading back indoors, Paul detoured into the gardens at the side of the home.
“Hey babe,” Paul said, leaning forward to kiss his partner, Ivan, who left his seat in one of the pool-side chairs.
The two titanic partners embraced, Ivan wrapping his arms around his partner and planting his hands on Paul’s waist.
“How was the walk?”
“Good one,” Paul answered.
Brad, though all of their niceties, had remained perched atop Paul’s right shoulder, waiting for the right moment to fly off toward home. He still couldn’t believe his luck!
He was also held fixed in place, mesmerized by his familiar neighbors suddenly transformed into norm-shattering giants.
Their rumbling voices, the powerful, concentrated miasma of sweat, musk and cologne, and their difficult to comprehend immensity compared to his tiny form battered Brad’s haywire senses and made him horny and careless.
Ivan, stepping back, noticed the tiny passenger on his spouse’s shoulder as the fly twitched and clung there.
Brad saw Paul’s huge, masculine partner turn a dark gaze on him. “Time to fly,” he buzzed, but felt a tug as one of his claw-tipped legs got tangled with a strand of fiber in Paul’s shirt.
Brad tugged, twisted, trying to get free. His wings buzzed louder as his failure to do so pushed him into panic as he saw Ivan’s scowl and the movement of the man’s enormous arm.
“No!” Brad buzzed. “Don’t. It’s me! Brad! Your neighbor!”
Without any hesitation, Ivan slapped his hand, palm down, firmly, on the shoulder of his partner.
“Oww. What was that for?”
“Bug,” Ivan pronounced. “Got it,” he added with a rather triumphant smile, wiping his hand on the hip of his shorts.
Paul teased, “You’re not worried about karma, babe?”
“Doesn’t apply to pests,” Ivan said. “There’s a loophole. You’re allowed to deal with them.”
They both laughed and lost any further interest in the fate of a mere insect.
Their discussion, however, was lost on Brad. Indeed, he had defied the odds and gotten almost all the way back home, but a casual slap had cruelly crushed him without mercy on the very verge of achieving his goal.