Light

Two flies discuss pie.

“Poor Frank. Never saw it coming.”

“Casey had it comin’ to him though-you have to admit that.”

“Agreed.”

The two flies settled themselves on the large ledge in front of the clear barrier that always prevented them from food, eyeing a freshly baked pie with envy. The one named Larry buzzed around the barrier for a moment, and then, disheartened at his lack of success, rejoined his friend.

“I don’t understand it!”

“Larry, you know that human magic is impenetrable. Just be glad you’re on this side. Remember the incident with Frank?”

“Yes Dennis. All too well.”

Of course he remembered the incident with Frank. The young fly had been too greedy… Somehow Frank had gotten passed the barrier, but on the other side they could see the red and white death machine with its skinny body and big face coming down on him when he wasn’t looking and…

Squish.

Larry and Dennis decided they were smarter than this. Frank was young, and they were wise. After all, they had both been alive five whole days. They were practically the elders now.

“You want to go back to the dung pile? I hear there are some fine females we can attract.” Dennis asked, rubbing his legs over his wings.

“Nah. I’m tired of dung. I want pie. I want something else. I mean-is this really all that’s to life for a fly? Dung and girls?”

Dennis buzzed a laugh. “Don’t forget barrier magic, humans, and death machines.”

Larry looked at him seriously with his large red eyes, where he could see multiple images of his companion.

“You know what I mean.”

Dennis shrugged as much as a fly could and gave his own longing look at the steam coming off of the pie and fogging the barrier.

“There’s always the fruit trees. Those always taste good.”

“I don’t kn-wait a second. What’s that?”

The two flies looked up as a strange thing started to hum and lighten up. It looked so beautiful against the darkening sky, and the light was standing out against everything else. Larry and Dennis stood mesmerized and staring as it swayed softly in the wind.

“Forget about the pie… I want to get a closer look at whatever that thing is!”

“Now Larry, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here…” his six legged friend cautioned. “Let’s just wait a second and see what happens.”

Begrudgingly, Larry mumbled something unintelligible in agreement, and the two of them sat there looking rather longingly up at the light.

“Hey guys!” an annoying voice buzzed behind them. Dennis and Larry groaned within themselves as they turned around to see a larger clumsier fly with a crumpled wing and five legs come up happily.

“Hello Marvel…” the two of them muttered, clearly aggravated by the sight of the newcomer. Their acquaintance however, did not seem to notice.

“What’cha guys doin? Can I join? Can I? Can I?” he said in his annoying high pitched buzz that seemed to vibrate the whole ledge.

Dennis suddenly had an idea as quickly as if someone had smashed a human death machine. He glanced over at his red eyed friend, who seemed to flutter his wings a little excitedly. Apparently they were thinking the same thing as they both took a quick look at the light swaying above them.

“Yeah Marvel!” Dennis said enthusiastically. “We actually just found this really cool thing and we were wondering what it was.”

“Really??”

“Yeah.” Larry chimed in, floating a little up in the air and touching back down again. “But we’re too scared to go up and look.”

He could see Dennis holding down his clear wings with difficulty, trying not to laugh as Marvel inflated his chest.

“Never fear!! Marvel is here!! I’ll go see what it is and report back!”

And without further ado, the crumpled fly zoomed up to the light. Larry and Dennis watched with anticipation from below.

“It’s really beautiful!” Marvel called down, circling the contraption, illuminated with the white glow. “I’m going to touch it!”

“Be our guest and let us know!” Dennis called out to him, getting a nudge from his friend Larry.

“Here I go!!”

What happened next came completely unexpected.

ZAP!!

Marvel didn’t even have the chance to scream or call out or anything. There was suddenly a burst of light and the fly was soon falling to the ground-blackened into charcoal. Larry and Dennis watched in shock as the annoying fly hit the ground with a soft crunch, bouncing slightly. They looked at each other and then zoomed down to examine the damage.

Hesitantly, Larry poked him with his rear.

“He’s dead.”

“Oops.”

“Better him than us.”

“You got that right.”

They rolled him over to see his singed legs sticking up in odd places. Larry looked from the dead fly that used to annoy them back up to the light swinging from above.

“You know, Dennis, I think I just got an idea…”

“What?”

“See how he’s smoking like the pie we always want?”

Dennis started buzzing excitedly, seeing where he was going with this.

“Brilliant Larry! Just brilliant!!”

“What should we do with Marvel?”

“Just leave him! We’ve got something to test out!”

The two of them kicked off of the ground and flew as quickly as they could to the apple tree, where more of their friends were hovering over the fallen rotten apples that had made their new homes in the grass. A black bird they knew as Marco also pecked at some of the fruit, cawing with laughter at some joke another fly friend had made. Larry and Dennis quickly grabbed a small piece in each of their legs and flew it back to the light, where they hovered a bit nervously around the brightness.

“Ready? When I say go… Go!”

The two friends threw the apple pieces at the light, the force causing them to somersault through the air. Just like with their dead acquaintance Marvel, the light zapped again, and the fruit fell to the ground with a little plume of smoke. They rushed down eagerly to see what had happened. The fruit was now hot and a little charcoaled. Larry spit up on it and then carefully started to eat at the fruit.

“Dennis!! It’s delicious!!” he said happily.

The two of them gorged themselves gleefully on their new discovery as the dead fly beside them rolled over in the wind.

Reviews

[Jacob Clifford]

What a wonderful story. This is the type of creativity that makes me jealous. I have a very hard time coming up with out-of-the-box ideas, and so I really enjoy when I find creative stories, especially when they're written as well as this one. You managed to make these little insects seem almost human, each with their own personality. It was amussing to watch their schemes unfold (poor Marvel).