Essay About Stingers
“I really wish the rain would stop its interrupting my concentration. I need to finish this paper before the end of the day or I’m going to be in trouble with the professor.” Noah said to himself as he sat there in front of his computer. The nice thirty-two inch computer monitor brightened the room up with a glow. His apartment was otherwise void of light as he considered the extra illumination a distraction.
“Those calculations are way off,” he said to himself. The college student had red hair down to his ears and thick glasses hanging on his face. The strange freckles on his cheeks are many with different sizes strewn about. He chews on a yellow pencil as he stares at the screen which leaves small teeth marks indented in the yellow paint. His nice red sweater is a mess with potato chip crumbs. He brushes them off of his faded jeans but doesn’t seem to mind the mess on his upper torso. “I don’t understand this…”
Coming from a family of tech savvy business people Noah should understand the fundamentals of computers, but he was illiterate. His father wanted him to become an information technology director or a computer programmer, something that involved computers would be fine just as long as he didn’t follow the rest of his friends who were all bums on the street according to his dad. So far Noah is doing his best to fulfill his father’s wishes making almost all A’s in all of his classes. And he damn well better be making those A’s with all of the money his father has spent sending him to that school. Not that money was an issue with him because it wasn’t. Being a big-wig in the computer industry has given his father a nice bank account. An account so large that even if he were to retire, or get fired, he wouldn’t have to worry about finding another job for the rest of his life.
Deep down Noah didn’t want any part of the computer world. He wanted to become an archaeologist. A nice job working out in the open deserts of Egypt or some long lost city found inside of a dark cave. That would be the type of work he would be happy with. The kind of work that he could see himself working at for the rest of his life. Who needs to be a computer nerd when there is an incredible job scaling mountains and running away from large boulders… maybe that last one was only in a movie, but Noah wouldn’t mind the excitement of it all.
“So close to finishing this thing but I don’t know what to put here…” and from the room past the kitchen he could hear a buzzing sound. He stopped with his typing as he listened. It sounds like some sort of insect was invading his privacy. An insect that didn’t care about his school work enough to be quiet. All of that noise, that buzz-buzzing around, was keeping him from his completion.
And so he had to do something about the little noise maker.
He placed his chewed pencil down on the desk in front of him which knocked over his signed baseball card of Barry Bonds. Barry was the only baseball player he had ever met shaking hands with him at the store in his town. Going to the grocery store looking for some eggs and bread it never once crossed his mind that he would run into a celebrity. Barry Bonds of all people who was in there purchasing some snacks for himself. Noah didn’t have a Barry Bonds card on him of course but he made a gamble picking up a pack of baseball cards from the shelf. After opening the pack, wouldn’t you know it, there was a Barry Bonds card right there on top. He smiled as he managed to get the player to sign it. That was a day to remember and now the card lies face down being brutally knocked over by a chewed pencil.
He flipped the kitchen light on followed by the light in the next room.
Buzz, buzz, said the insect. He knew it was a bee even before he turned the corner into the front room. The steps leading down were a bit slippery from some rain water that had leaked in causing him to slip falling into the wall. He wasn’t hurt and when he regained his composure he pushed his glasses back onto his face revealing one of the biggest hornets he had ever seen. That’s how his grandma would have said it. “I swear it ‘twas the biggest hornet I had ever seen. I’ve been ‘round for years but those there things scare the dickens out of me.”
“I’d be scared to grandma that ain’t no bee,” he said. And then, “that has to be a record size. I should keep that thing for Sanders down at the lab. He would love to have it.”
Sanders is his friend who was very much into bugs. He would be the expert to go to if you had ever ran into an insect that you knew nothing about. Just capture the little creature and bring it to him in a jar. He would take care of the rest. Which usually only included taking the jar, looking at the bug, and identifying it. He’s that good which amazed all of his peers including the professor. He would sure love this hornet that’s for sure, but unfortunately Noah is busy plugging in the vacuum cleaner.
“You don’t come into my home and interrupt my studying. I don’t like that.” Noah said while picking up the long suction hose. He reached down turning the knee-high shop-vacuum on. It roared to life with a ravenous fury ready to suck in anything that would cross its path. Who would have ever guessed that a small red vacuum would be so powerful? Especially after he had bought it during a sale. This shop-vacuum was half-off its original price as it sat there on the shelves of the store. The same store that he met Barry Bonds in not too long ago. That store has been good to him giving him an autographed baseball card and a shop-vacuum that will suck a watermelon through a garden hose.
“Suck, suck, suck,” Noah said as he tip-toed over to where the hornet was located. He was hunched over while holding the vacuum hose in both hands. His glasses were falling off of his face but he quickly fixed that problem.
“I don’t think you knew what you were getting yourself into little fellow,” he said to the massive hornet. He thought calling it a little fellow would destroy its self-esteem making it easier to catch, but do hornets even have a self-esteem?
The vacuum roared with its suction power as Noah moved the hose closer to the buzzing hornet.
The creature had landed on the wall walking around minding its own business, not hurting anyone or anything at all. It sees a nice piece of wood that has flaked from the wall and decides to go investigate the strange thing. As it walks forward the giggling laughter of Noah could be heard from behind. The hornet turns its small head only to see in horror a large black vacuum hose coming right for it. With its wings spread and flapping trying to lift its tiny body the insect tries to get away but to no avail. Its small and pointless life flashes before its eyes as the pull of the suction begins to take grip.
“Buzzzzz…” the little insect says as its pulled into the dark abyss at a high rate of speed. With a click of a button the shop-vacuum was turned off. Noah put his ear out trying to hear the hornet flying around inside of the vacuum. There was nothing but silence because the hornet was dead.
In the dark recesses of the room some eyes stare at Noah. They are accompanied by a low buzzing noise.
