Tweet
Been holding off on typing this story, due to its size, but it's time...
Back story 1: I don't have any major phobias, but I do have a strong dislike of blood-sucking insects.
Back story 2: In my late teens I spent a summer working for Jones Beach State Park, in the parkway maintenance division. I enjoyed the fresh air, running lawn mowers and weed whackers, even picking up trash. There were mosquitos and biting flies, but I used 99% DEET lotion to keep 'em off me, which made it quite tolerable, until that last day...
We usually started off the morning picking up trash along the main parkway running through the site, starting at the far end from where most of the facilities are. I was dropped off by the truck, and began picking.
Well, I suppose it was that morning that a new breed of fly had just hatched out. Differently proportioned from the usual ones I encountered, with small bodies and fairly large wings, they began to take an interest in me.
They were HUNGRY. I wasn't being bitten, but I could tell; they'd land on me, then take off again, frustrated by the insect repellent. I applied more, just in case, but they wouldn't go away.
And they kept coming. Dozens. HUNDREDS. I kept feeling them land on my arms and the back of my neck. I'm still walking and picking up trash. Then speeding up. Then I stop picking up trash, waving my arms around in a panic, stumbling along at a fast rate. It was so surreal I couldn't help but wonder if it were a hallucination.
Finally the truck comes by for pick-up, my co-worker who is driving sees me running for the truck, and the look on his face gives me confirmation that the flies weren't a hallucination. I jump in and we take off, opening the windows and shooing out the flies that followed me into the cab. My co-worker, who wasn't using insect repellent, was bitten twice by the blasted things. Driving fast and waving them out of the truck, we finally got rid of them.
I was thoroughly freaked out, and quit that very day.
Back story 1: I don't have any major phobias, but I do have a strong dislike of blood-sucking insects.
Back story 2: In my late teens I spent a summer working for Jones Beach State Park, in the parkway maintenance division. I enjoyed the fresh air, running lawn mowers and weed whackers, even picking up trash. There were mosquitos and biting flies, but I used 99% DEET lotion to keep 'em off me, which made it quite tolerable, until that last day...
We usually started off the morning picking up trash along the main parkway running through the site, starting at the far end from where most of the facilities are. I was dropped off by the truck, and began picking.
Well, I suppose it was that morning that a new breed of fly had just hatched out. Differently proportioned from the usual ones I encountered, with small bodies and fairly large wings, they began to take an interest in me.
They were HUNGRY. I wasn't being bitten, but I could tell; they'd land on me, then take off again, frustrated by the insect repellent. I applied more, just in case, but they wouldn't go away.
And they kept coming. Dozens. HUNDREDS. I kept feeling them land on my arms and the back of my neck. I'm still walking and picking up trash. Then speeding up. Then I stop picking up trash, waving my arms around in a panic, stumbling along at a fast rate. It was so surreal I couldn't help but wonder if it were a hallucination.
Finally the truck comes by for pick-up, my co-worker who is driving sees me running for the truck, and the look on his face gives me confirmation that the flies weren't a hallucination. I jump in and we take off, opening the windows and shooing out the flies that followed me into the cab. My co-worker, who wasn't using insect repellent, was bitten twice by the blasted things. Driving fast and waving them out of the truck, we finally got rid of them.
I was thoroughly freaked out, and quit that very day.
Comment