Short Story: Bugs

 Second Short Story :)
Just made it, just for you.
A little toned down, compared to the the ones to come... *evil grin* 

    Lindsey was baking bread. She was wearing the pretty white apron with the pink trim, even though it didn’t really matter what she wore since she was alone in the house. She was also using the bright red oven mitts that she bought a month ago, and although she never payed attention to matching the colors of her clothes, she liked the way the red looked with the pink and white. She had the radio on top of the kitchen counter, playing music with the volume cranked up as she sang along to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. Lindsey took two hot loaves of fresh bread out of the oven and set them on the counter, then slid two more bread tins of some raw, doughy mass into the oven. She closed the door with a squeak and took off her oven mitts, throwing them carelessly on the counter and sighing.

    “God, it’s hot.” she said.

    It was early fall, and it was night at that, but the air was hot from the radiating oven, which had been baking bread for about 50 minutes at 375 degrees. Not to mention that every song that came on the radio seemed to be her favorite, and although she wouldn’t have admitted it Lindsey had danced, stomped her feet on the kitchen floor, and drummed the counters and stove with various utensils. It had gotten pretty warm, but before she did something about it, she walked over to the two bread tins that had been taken out of the oven a few minutes ago. She grabbed a knife and ran it along the inner edge of one of the bread pans, loosening the beautiful brown bread from the tin. Turning the tin upside down, Lindsey shook the bread from the pan, making it land with a plop on a small pile of flour. She did the same with the other loaf of bread and put the tins in the sink, then walked to the radio and turned the music off.

    Lindsey took off her apron and wiped her brow. She had about 40 minutes for the other two loaves in the oven to be ready, so she had time to spare. But she was so warm. Maybe she could stick her head in the freezer for a bit or get a drink from the fridge, but she wasn’t thirsty and the freezer seemed kind of extreme. She had 40 minutes after all, so she opened the screen door that led to the porch and stepped out into the black cool air outside.

    As soon as she closed the door behind her she recalled a memory from her childhood- her mother baking dinner rolls in the late afternoon, and a small toddling Lindsey staring with wonder at the screen door. With only a bit of mesh separating the child from the night, bugs were drawn to the bread yeast and light, and they came and nearly touched Lindsey’s outstretched fingers. The moths always came for the light, but there were gnats, fruit flies, and ladybugs gathered from the smell of yeast. This mixture seemed to create hundreds of the little insects, and as a child Lindsey would stand inside and stare endlessly at them all flitting around.

    But now Lindsey was older, and she also happened to be on the wrong side of the door. Her eyes took a couple of seconds to adjust to the dark, but there were wings brushing her arms and the faint silhouettes of insects slowly became clearer and illuminated by the light from inside. She had forgotten about the bugs, how they were attracted to the bread yeast, and for a moment she was afraid that she’d breathe the little gnats through her nose. She took a couple of steps away from the door and looked at the creatures flying clumsily into themselves and the screen. Gnats, ladybugs, moths- Big moths, too, there weren’t just the little white ones. Big brown ones with eyes on their wings, but, wasn’t it a little too late in the year for that many insects? Well, Lindsey supposed, maybe it wasn’t too cold just yet, they’d probably all die when a real frost comes. She wasn’t in the middle of the swarm anymore, but there were a few around her. She brushed them away from her bare arms and noticed there were flies, too. Houseflies. Two or three lightning bugs as well. Lindsey didn’t think they were supposed to be attracted to the bread yeast or the light inside. Weird.

     For a while she just stood there and enjoyed the night air. The air outside was cooler than inside, and it had that beautiful smell of dying leaves and oncoming autumn. Lindsey loved it, but eventually she didn’t really like the look of so many bugs by the screen, and she didn’t want to stay out much longer. In three strides she reached the door and opened it, then cried out in surprise and disgust. 

     A grasshopper had landed on her nose just as she was about to jump inside, and it disoriented her so much that she stood there for three precious seconds as the door stood open, Lindsey shaking her head from side to side. She didn't want to touch it, but wished it would just jump off and go back outside. It held on to her skin with sharp hooks, but when Lindsey realized that the door was open and bugs were streaming in, she whirled around and slammed the screen shut, causing the grasshopper to lose its grip and soar to the wooden flooring.

    For a moment she stood and caught her breath, panting, but her gasps soon turned into an aggravated groan as she saw a few dozen insects finding resting spots in her kitchen. She ran to a drawer, threw it open, and took out a neon green flyswatter. This, she thought, was war.

    A firefly on the white counter, splat. A ladybug on the ceiling next to the water stain, leap and splat. A mosquito on her shin, splat, though the impact stung a bit. Anything moving that rested for a moment met its end with a wack from Lindsey's plastic weapon. Eyes darting quickly from floor to ceiling, a tingly feeling began to creep over her. She knew it was a normal response, there seemed to be more bugs than ever right there in the kitchen, but it made her scared and she picked up her feet as if the floor was burning her. Was it her imagination, or was there a bug crawling along her neck? She dropped the flyswatter and her hand flew to her sweaty neck, but there was nothing. Lindsey bent down and let out a small squeak as a large silverfish scuttled over the handle still on the floor. Grabbing the flyswatter she brought it down on top of the sickly white insect, not wanting to stomp on it with her unprotected, socked foot. The dead silverfish left a mess of wetness on the floor. She stood upright and heard a new noise in the kitchen, a droning hum of wings and invisible motors, almost covering the steady tick of the oven timer. She wanted to cover her ears and run, but the bugs would burrow into the walls, they'd eat the food from the pantry, they'd- She gasped, closing her mouth quickly, dropped her flyswatter again and leaped toward the two loaves of bread on the counter. She snatched one up in her hands, as if to steal it back from the invaders, but as her eyes registered large and small holes in the loaf, she dropped it on the floor and jumped back.

    The impact of the fall caused the insects buried inside the loaf to scurry out of it- Dung beetles, Cicadas, ants, and Lindsey screamed as she saw a couple cockroaches stream from the bread to the edge of the kitchen floor. Why the heck were there so many? She picked up her flyswatter and killed a few more bugs. In a flash of inspiration, she jumped from the floor to sit on the counter to avoid the insects on the floor, though she groaned as she felt something squash beneath her. A Luna moth tried to land on the microwave but slipped off the smooth surface. A stink bug landed too fast on the window above the sink, and it made a horrible splat as it met the glass. There are too many bugs, she thought, too many bugs, why are there so many bugs? 

    The oven timer buzzed then, and a cricket seeming to be near the phone chimed in. Sitting on top of the counter, Lindsey swatted and killed anything that came near her, and thankfully the number seemed to be lessening. However, she knew she had been too slow and too afraid to kill all the bugs that had been in the bread and on the floor, and she sadly came to the conclusion that there were probably roaches, not to mention other bugs, hidden in her house. Maybe she could stay the night at a friend's, and call the exterminator tomorrow. Yes, that seems okay, she thought as she slowly laid the flyswatter down and slipped off the counter to the empty floor. Lindsey took her oven mitts and shook them out before putting them on, and a ladybug flew out of one. She opened the oven door and took out the two fresh loaves of bread. Not bothering to take them from the pans, she shoved one loaf into the freezer to keep it away from any bugs still left, and put the other on the counter, running to the bathroom to grab a couple towels. She wrapped the bread and bread tin up into a bundle, slipped whatever shoes she found first on her feet, and ran outside into the blackness to her car.

    Once inside and door closed, sitting, buckled, she started the car and set her bread bundle in the passenger seat. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed the number of a friend Lindsey thought would be the shortest distance from her house. With one hand on the steering wheel, she drove out of her driveway and out onto the road, headlights flashing, driving slowly while she waited for the friend to pick up.

     "Hi," Lindsey said immediately as the phone was picked up. "What are ya doin'?"

     "Lindsey," Cassie's voice answered, not trying to cover her frustration, "What do you think I'm doing? It's Wednesday, and it's twelve thirty."

     "Oh. Well, look, I kind of had an accident at my house, I was baking bread, and-"

     "You burned your house down?! Jesus, Lindsey-"

     "No, ah, Cassie, I didn't burn my house down, it's just... There were like a million bugs in my house, there were cockroaches, and... and..."

     "Cockroaches? A million, huh? Lindsey, I think you're over exaggerating."

     "But Cassie, I can't stay there! There were bugs all over, really, and I'm calling the exterminator tomorrow. Please, could you let me stay the night at your house? It's just one night."

     "Exterminator? Okay, if you say so, but I'm only letting you cause I know you won't leave me alone otherwise. There weren't any bedbugs, were there? Or ticks?"

     "No, I don't think so, but if you want I could shower at your house before I sleep on anything. Or something. I'm also bringing bread, as a, uh, as compensation?"

     "Whatever, I don't really care. I'm going back to bed. There's a key under that cast iron cat sculpture outside, use that to get in. Do what you want, but just don't make a lot of noise, okay? Goodnight."

     "Thank y-" Lindsey started, but Cassie hung up.

**

Lindsey stepped out of the bathroom, vigorously rubbing a towel on her damp hair. She put down the towel and picked up the bread from where she had set it on the dining room table, and she took a table knife and ran it along the sides. She turned it upside down and shook it, and when it fell out she set the pan down and turned the bread right side up, cutting into it immediately with the table knife. She was a little hungry, but mostly she just needed something familiar and delicious to calm her down. It was also a little warm still, and she loved bread best when it was fresh out of the oven. She ripped the knife through the bread, and when the first slice flopped down and she looked at the inside of the loaf, she screamed.

Thanks for reading! Keep in touch!

Your sadistic friend, 

Layla