(NOTE: Yes, I took a bit of a sabbatical from writing due to work, weddings, family passings, you name it. This latest entry is from the “You-Won’t-Believe-This-Really-Happened” Department, but a good portion of this is actually TRUE! I even have photos to document it, but it was a lot more fun turning it into a children’s fantasy short story. So read this as if you are reading it to a child. I do promise to go back my usual writing when I start to work less and begin to swim more!).
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My name is Sammy and being a stink bug is not easy. Even with my 6 legs, I can go anywhere and do anything. But there is problem with me because stink bugs smell bad! Really, really, bad! No one likes us to be near us because of our smell, in fact, we do not like to be around other stink bugs because they are smelly too!
But something happened to me not too long ago that I want to tell you about, because as of today, I do not smell any more!
I live near a large house with lots of grass and trees around it. I especially like all the windows on the house because I can cling to them with my 6 legs and see what is inside!
Back to my story. A man named Dante went outside with a large, pink basket and started painting it green with a can of spray paint. The basket was to hold lots of bread to share at his daughter Eliza’s wedding. Eliza and her fiancé, Xander, wanted everything green at their wedding, just like being in the forest.
Dante did a good job painting the basket but missed a few spots. Being a curious stink bug, I decided to check the basket out. So, I crawled through the grass with my 6 legs and climbed up the side of the basket. It had an odd smell, but it sure smelled better than I did! I liked the basket because I felt safe there, so with my 6 legs, I crawled down to the bottom of it. I took a long nap and dreamed about not being stinky. I was so happy!
Suddenly….PSSSSSSSTTTTT! A strange noise woke me up, and the next thing I felt were wet drops falling from the sky!
But it was not rain, it was green paint droplets from the spray can! And the green paint was so sticky, my 6 legs and my oval shaped body could not move! Dante sprayed the remaining pink spots green, but he painted ME green too!
There I was, stuck to the basket and helpless. The green paint dried on me and at last, I stopped smelling like a stink bug! It was like magic! There was a lot of time to think about my next move, but I still could not move, even with my 6 legs trying to wriggle out of the basket.
So, I took another nap. I dreamed I was in the basket, riding in a big, green car, traveling to a big, busy city, going up in a big, wooden elevator and then being placed on a big, round table.
Wait – that was NOT a dream! I DID ride in a car, go to a city, up, up an elevator, and placed on a table. It turns out that I was in the hotel where Eliza and Xander were going to have their wedding!
It was all so exciting for me that I found the strength in my 6 legs to free myself from the sticky, green paint and climbed back up to the top of the basket! I just had to see what Eliza and Xanders’s wedding looked like because I was now green and knew I would fit in with everything there.
Well, my plan was not what I expected. I climbed off the basket, jumped off the table onto the floor, and crawled with my 6 legs and headed to the door. Dante’s wife, Carly was in the hotel room and almost stepped on me but she stopped just in time. Whew, that was close! Carly saw me, took a tissue and gently picked me up and covered me like it was a warm blanket, where I fell asleep again.
I dreamed of the beautiful smell of red roses, blue and purple flowers and tall, green pillars in a large room full of people all dressed up for the wedding. I dreamed that Eliza and Xander were twirling and dancing to music. I always thought I would be a good dancer with my 6 legs, but no one ever wanted to dance with me because I am a stink bug and I smell bad.
Wait – that was NOT a dream – again! Carly put me in a glass jar where I would be safe and could be part of the wedding! I watched Eliza and Xander dance to the music, saw other people smile and laugh and even smelled the red, blue and purple flowers. I was so happy! It made me wonder if stink bugs could ever have a party like that, but sadly, we smell bad and do not want to be around one another. I considered myself the luckiest and greenest stink bug ever, so I danced inside the glass jar with my 6 legs.
When the wedding was over, Carly brought me back to the hotel room. She wanted me to stay safe, so I stayed in the glass jar overnight.
In the morning, it was time to leave the hotel in the big city and go back to the house with the grass and the trees and the windows. I had to get wrapped up in a tissue again, but I did not mind because I knew that I would be safe.
Very carefully, Carly put me on a pile of wood when we got home and said goodbye to me. There I sat on my 6 legs for a long time, thinking about what happened to me. I had so much fun being a green stink bug because I went places and saw things that stink bugs would not normally do. Maybe it was because I no longer smelled like a stink bug, so I was treated differently, I thought…like I was someone special. I was sad and wanted to do it all over again.
Somehow, I knew it was time to start a new life as just a green bug. So I made my way off the wood pile, and snuck through the grass with my 6 legs, and headed toward Carly’s garden, where I sat among the butterfly bushes and made a new friend with a butterfly. His name was Manny the Monarch Butterfly. He thought my green color was cool and it was hard for him to see me in the butterfly bushes. The long flowers bushes were a mix of the same color of green as me and there were also purple and white and pink flowers. I learned that butterflies like to visit the bushes and drink the nectar from the flowers. I told Manny that I loved being there because everything smelled so nice and I could climb around them on my 6 legs and explore them. That made me so happy, and I was also even happier to have a new friend.
Manny gave me some surprising news about the butterfly bushes and his upcoming trip. Winter was approaching and the flowers were not going to bloom much longer. That also meant he and all the other Monarch butterflies had to fly South, where it was warm and they could all find more flowers to drink from.
I was so sad to hear this news. Manny saw how sad I was. Then he said, “Sammy, why don’t you come with me? You can ride on my back and be my co-pilot!!” I was not sure what a co-pilot was, but it sounded exciting to fly in the air, live in warmer weather, not be smelly and make new friends.
Our trip began and our new journey started to sunny Mexico!
Being a stink bug hasn’t turned out so bad after all, now has it? From a can of green spray paint to a trip for a wedding and now a trip to Mexico. I will miss Dante, Carly, Eliza, and Xander but it is time for this Not So Smelly Stink Bug to fly!
As they say in Mexico, “Adios por ahora” which means “goodbye for now!”
