The three months Ann and I recently spent in the high west were an
interbugnum, one of those rare times in our lives when nothing was biting us.
We
arrived back home in Florida to discover that the entire inside of our house
had turned blue and our bed was a pustulent pulsating blue green blob. I
stripped off the sheets in horror and was enveloped in a choking cloud of
spores that almost induced anaphylactic shock. I yanked the windows open and
ran out onto the porch to gasp for air and get a fan.
Hours later I ventured back in to put on new sheets. We were exhausted from
having slept on the ground for the previous three months so it was time
for bed.
When I awoke I was still groggy from antihistamines, jet lag, and spore
induced bronchitis. As I staggered over to my stack of tee shirts (also blue
from mold) I felt something on my neck which I supposed to be a spider so I
brushed it off but when I looked down at the floor there was nothing there.
I thought that was odd because at Weazelworld spiders and humans live in
perfect harmony, they never bother me and I never bother them. But where was
the spider?
About twenty minutes later while drinking my coffee I gradually became
aware of a terrible itch on the back of my neck. I had been scratching at it
for several minutes before even being aware of what I was doing. I had clawed
my skin raw where half a dozen angry red welts were rapidly rising on my
neck. Dr. Ann confirmed what I already supposed, that I had been fed upon by
one or more Triatoma sanguisugas.
They live in pairs and may even be monogamous. They had a very good meal so
they have gone to tend their brood and haven’t been back. But they are
still out there and they will be back.
Sleaze
