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The Eclectic Pen - The Life of Fly

By: Ida R. (ibrich)  
Date Submitted: 8/2/2011
Genre: Uncategorized
Words: 1,226
Rating:

The Life of Fly From the time she first crawled out of her pupal caccoon, Fly knew that she was destined for greatness. She didn't know how or why she knew this, she just did. Her life started as one of 250 eggs laid on the carcass of an unfortunate antelope who chose to cross the highway in the path of oncoming traffic. Within minutes of the tragedy, Fly's mother landed on the carcass and deposited her eggs. Although it only took around 24 hours for the young maggots to hatch and begin their journies, Fly was the last of the small maggots to emerge. So began her journey. For 3 days the mass of maggots, Fly's siblings, churned and crawled over one another, feeding on the antelopes flesh. Fly wondered, occasionally during this time, why their mother had left so soon after depositing her eggs. It wasn't the nature of flies to hang around and build a relationship with their children, but Fly often wondered how it might have been if she had. Fly knew she was different from the other maggots, even at the earliest of stages in their life. None of her siblings, not one of the 250, cared to discuss the fact that they had been left to fend for themselves. They didn't think it was the least bit strange or disturbing. Their only thought was to gorge themselves on the still warm inards of their host's decaying body. But Fly could not shake the feeling that there were mother's out there who stayed and nurtured their children. As she developed from stage one to stage two in her maggotness, Fly began to seek the company of the other maggots on the antelopes carcass. None of them seemed to want to enter into a conversation with her either. She tried to speak with the adult flies who landed on the carcass, but they were only interested in depositing their eggs, feeding and then flying off again. As Fly was entering her third and longest stage of being a maggot before she was begin her metamrphasis, she began to understand her life as a blow fly a little better. Although she still longed to know her mother, she knew that this was only a foolish pipedream. Fly did know, however, that she was not 'ordinary'. Spurned by the others, Fly crawled over the bloated body to find a place where she could be alone. Failing to find complete solitude, Fly was satisfied to find a corner of flesh that was less crowded and settled down in the soft tissue to eat and think about things of which she knew nothing. It was during this time that Fly heard stange voices. She didn't know who they were, but she knew that it was not flies or maggots speaking. The voices were coming from very large creatures that were picking up the carcass. Adult flies were flying away and many of the maggots had fallen onto the ground, but Fly remained safe in the recesses of the dead animal. The carcass was lifted and loaded on to a truck. Fly crawled out from her safe crevice. She felt the sensation of movement. It was unlike anuthing she'd ever known. She made her way back into the crevice. Later, the carcass was unloaded and thrown into a pile of other carcasses. Fly knew that her time for the change was near. She crawled off the carcass and burrowed herself in the soft dirt. She was changing. Her outter skin was becoming brown and hard. During this stage, Fly is changing. She had often wondered if it would be painful. The changes were hard for Fly to explain, even to herself. She felt as if her body had melted and was being reformed. After a few days, the outter skin begins to crack and Fly emerges in her adult body. She crawls out of the shallow dirt and shakes the dirt off of her newly formed wings. Then she flies. "What a wonderful sensation!" She thinks. Fly wonders if her siblings and the other maggots have also changed. Surely they have. She looks at the pile of carcasses, flies up and feeds before leaving the area to explore the wonderful world around her. That night she finds a pile of garbage to feed on and a place to sleep. Fly knew that her lifspan was short, compared to the lifespans of other animals and insects. She still felt like her life had a purpose. She flew off the garbage pile. Not knowing where she was headed, Fly kept flying. She would stop at night to eat and sleep. One night, on the carcass of a rabbit that had been left by a coyote, Fly met Bill. They spent the next day together. Fly tried to talk to Bill about how she had always wondered about her mother and how she felt that she had s special mission in life, but he didn't seem to understand. Fly and Bill flew together to a garbage dump. They had just settled down for the night, when more of the large creatures showed up and dumped them into a truck. Fly was able to fly away, but Bill was still in the truck as it drove away. Fly continued to fly from place to place. Just waiting for her mission. Fly knew that she needed to find a place to deposit her eggs. This was the circle of life for a blow fly. Fly thought that maybe this was the big mission she felt. Bu somehow, she still had the feeling there was something else. She was flying across a field when she saw another carcass. It was one of the large creatures, the humans. She landed on the female body. Other flies were beginning to land on the body. Fly found a small wound and deposited her eggs. The next day, another human arrived and picked up the body. This human took the body into a house and laid it on a bed. He removed the body's clothes and washed it. Fly and her eggs, however, were deep inside the wound. For some reason, Fly felt that she needed to stay where she was. She knew that she would only live a couple of days longer. Early the next morning, more humans arrived. These seemed very interested in the body. Fly crawled out of the wound. When they saw her, one of the humans became very excited. Fly sat very still. She knew she should fly away, but something kept her there. The human put her in a small jat. "Are there larva? We will need to test them, too." Fly knew, as she lay dieing, the this was her destiny. She was to help solve the murder of the human.

The Eclectic Pen » All Stories by Ida R. (ibrich)

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