Things That Go Buzz in the night!

(First published here in 2016).

Sometimes what scares you the most are concrete things that scared you as a child. Sometimes experiences you'd think would have left you scarred inexplicably don't. The human psyche is a rich and strange land.

I'm allergic to spider bites. We discovered this when I was bitten on the hand at the age of five. I remember how the pain kept growing, and how my hand swelled until I couldn't use it, and how I had to see the doctor for treatment. A later bite on my back left a scar and taught me the meaning of the verb, to lance.

Yet I'm not afraid of spiders. I loved the book Charlotte's Web. I tolerate one or two on the outside of the house in hopes they'll catch mosquitoes and flies.

Wasps, on the other hand, I am afraid of, although I'm not allergic to them. Go figure!

Last week I was staying with my ninety-year-old mother during a storm. Guess who showed up inside the house?

Yep, Wasps. Plural. Over a three-day period. They should have been dead or hibernating or hiding out in their nest - whatever wasps do in the winter - but instead, they kept appearing inside the house. They did seem sluggish, though - thank goodness!

Initially, Mom found one crawling on the hall floor one morning. Imagine her surprise! Then she spotted one on the edge of the bathroom waste basket. I later found one in the bathroom sink. At that point,we started looking for more. There were five or six behind the blinds in the living room window. That's when Mom realized how they'd gotten into the house.

Weather forecasters had predicted very high winds. I 'd walked around the house and yard, putting anything that might blow inside the garage. But I forgot the pillows on the deck swing. I went out the back door to get them and spotted a birdhouse made of bark on the deck. I snatched that up, too. It hardly weighed anything - definitely might blow away. Unfortunately I stowed the pillows and the birdhouse on the floor behind Mom's recliner.

Sure enough, wasps had built a cozy nest inside the birdhouse! The warm house must have awakened them from their winter sleep. Mom put the birdhouse back outside. We breathed a sigh of relief.

Next morning, there were two more wasps at the living room window. That night one was buzzing around the lamp. After searching the bedrooms for insect interlopers, we left the light on in the living room and shut our bedroom doors hoping any that remained would "go towards the light."

Apparently they did. We found a few more  near the window on the third day. I, for one, am afraid of things that go buzz in the night!

What are you afraid of? ~ Sarah

Sarah Raplee writes paranormal romance featuring underdogs, outsiders and survivors. She has published stories in two anthologies. Her first novel, BLINDSIGHT, Book1 of the Psychic Agent Series, available from Windtree Press.