The Old Man and The Mosquito

He had finally met his match.

The Old Man wasn’t alone in his hatred for The Mosquito. Despite his emotions on the matter, he could do little about the annoying insect short of shutting himself up in isolation and under a mosquito net for the rest of his life, an entertaining but impractical thought.

And it wasn’t that he hated all mosquitoes, just the ones that buzzed his ear in the middle of the night, like one was doing tonight. Clearly, The Mosquito had The Old Man’s number and it was stamped in glow-in-the-dark letters on his forehead. Most of its compadres would land on his skin and within two swats, The Old Man was resting peacefully again.

Not this one.

It was apparent The Mosquito had been observing his fellow mosquitos closely to do the exact opposite of what they had been doing. He was zagging when they were zigging, and had learned a valuable lesson along the way.

In short, The Mosquito was a survivor.

After fifteen minutes of tolerating the annoyance, The Old Man resigned that he had met his match. This pest was throwing everything it could at The Old Man, because now, unbeknownst to The Old Man, The Mosquito had an audience.

In the day time, The Mosquito was busy breeding and bringing up babies so they could watch and observe Papa in action: Train in the day and observe at night.

Take action, though, is exactly what the little ones finally did after The Old Man finally administered the final death blow to their Papa. Innately, The Mosquito knew it was time to move on and let the younger generation carry the annoyance mantle forward.

Swat!

“Finally,” The Old Man said, not realizing what he was unleashing. The Little Ones were now on their own, a time their Papa had been preparing them for. They couldn’t shed a single mosquito tear today, but took immediate and decisive action against the perp – The Old Man.

The Mosquito’s brood of 92 angry mosquitoes had officially gone into action. The ripple effect of the swat would continue for days. The Old Man’s peace at having eliminated The Mosquito would only last for minutes.

Isolation and seclusion inside a mosquito net was seeming like a brilliant idea after all.