DAY 22 OF FLASH AUGUST FICTION. I hope you are holding up under the barrage of constant lying from your television. Maybe I can help you get a little break from that. That’s my goal. Especially for those of you reporting on it. I’m Herschel Sterling, and I’m here to help. Here is the link from today’s blog post of the past week’s review.
Now, it’s important for me to mention a new follower,
. Thanks for the follow, Therese. Press on!Scorpion Friends
Life’s Kind Surprises
592 WORDS WRITTEN IN ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR
There weren’t any scorpions in the basement today. Monica is thrilled. She hates having to deal with them, and she also hates using the poison or the glue traps. She paid her friend Ray to come and completely fill all the cracks in the foundation. The hope is that there aren’t any loose in the basement, and that it will force them away from getting into the basement.
There aren’t a lot of basements in the area where Monica lives, most houses are built on slabs. Now the concern to be aware of is that any scorpions that are caught in the foundation, do not make their way up into the house!
Monica calls Ray to tell him the good news that she has not seen any signs of scorpions in the basement for a few days.
“That’s great news, Monica, I’m glad.” Ray tells her. “Now, since you emptied all of your closets and any storage areas on the floor before I did that, be sure to check all of those areas before you put anything away”. Did you check for any openings in your closets and all of that with a flashlight and make sure there are no crevices for them to find?”
Monica responds: “I did, and I’m going to wait a couple of days before I put things away.” I have everything that goes in the closets and floor storage elevated so if they find a way up here from the foundation, they can’t hide in there.”
“OK, so far so good.” I’ll come by tomorrow and take a look beneath the plywood we put down around the house.” Chances are high that I’m going to find some under some of that wood.” Something you could do would be to go soak it down with water to cool it down. “We want them to stay under there, so we can get them, of course.”
“True,” Monica says. “I don’t want them finding new places to hide out.”
“You said you have seen several smaller, young ones?” Ray asks.
“Yes, I really did. There were a few.”
“We should have something under the plywood tomorrow, for sure, then.” Ray said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, before it gets really hot.”
Monica says goodbye to Ray until tomorrow, and she goes outside to water down all the wood they put around the house in order to provide the scorpions that were infesting her basement some cool shelter. This way they can be easily gathered and taken away from the property.
Monica is loving the day. She has no more scorpions in her basement, and it’s a pretty day. Not a cloud in the sky as far as the eye can see. Really good luck today, all the way around.
Monica checks the basement on the following day, and there are no scorpions there at all. She checks her closets and has closed any gaps where they can sneak in. Nothing in them either. It won’t be long before she’s confident that she can restock those storage spaces.
At around 7 AM, Ray comes over to check beneath the plywood. They go out there together to see what they can find. After going around the entire house and checking underneath all the wood, they are able to gather up eight scorpions.
“Wow.” Ray says. “This is great. Quite a haul, the lab will be thrilled.”
Monica responds. “I never would have though that scorpion venom could be used for synthesizing a cancer treatment, and that I could get paid for providing them.”
The End
I hope that wasn’t too bad of a surprise ending. I hope your life can have some nice surprises like that. Thank you so much for listening, or reading. This is the Smell the Inside of Your Nose. Do it Right Now podcast. I hope you might get a paid subscription, or buy me a coffee, or donate some bitcoin. I wish you the best. I’m Herschel Sterling, and I’m here to help.
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