Use the three words smelly, short, and number in prompt.

My yard needed cleaning, and the first thing I thought I’d start with was the old bricks and rocks next to my back porch. I turned over one of the bricks and awakened several short black and brown beetles that began scurrying around in all directions. They began smelling to high heaven. The vast number of them began crawling up my porch steps. Hopping over them, I raced up the steps and into my house to look for a can of insecticide.

Searching through one of the cupboards in the utility room, I spotted the can I needed. Other items crashed to the floor in my haste to withdraw the spray can out.

As I opened my back door, the creeping beetles began marching in over my threshold. I sprayed and sprayed as many as I could. Grabbing my broom, I swept the dying bodies to the ground outside and sprayed them again.

I looked to my right and spotted my shovel which leans against the outside wall of my home. Snatching the tool, I began shoveling the sheer numbers into the burn pile and lit a match.

I don’t know what kind of black beetles they were, but it was either them or me in my crusade. I wasn’t going to let them win.

Then, from the neighbor’s yard, a boy child walked over and asked, “Have you seen my bug experiment?”

©A. Nation-2017

 
WHAT SMELLS?
After a short vacation away, I walked into my kitchen, and something assaulted my nose.
“What is that smelly thing around here?” I said out loud.

Next thing I knew, hundreds of mice scurried around my feet. I jumped on the table without first stepping on the chair. I would have screamed if my voice had worked. After some minutes, I dare look where the mice came from.

The mystery was solved. My room-mate who I had not heard from for several weeks was lying in the pantry, her body mostly eaten away by the mice.

Ellynore Seybold, 10-17-2017