It's a Bugs Life

Once upon a time there was a little boy who was a lover of creatures both big and small. One day this little boy brought home a pet from school. This was not your typical pet. It wasn't furry or cuddly. It didn't run and greet you at the door or chase a ball or fetch a newspaper or curl up in your lap. It wasn't something you would even call cute unless you were an entomologist.

The boy's mother, who was afraid not a lover of such small creatures, was adamant that this new pet would not live in the house. After much whining pleading, the mother caved so she wouldn't have to hear it anymore relented and let the boy keep it in his room as long as he promised not to let it run loose. The boy was happy. The mother was skeptical.

So the boy brought his pet to his room and made it comfortable, furnishing it's new condo with the finest things. Dirt rich in nutrients, decaying wood and water.

Although this pet had a nice home and a boy to call his own, he did not have a name. So the boy thought and thought and decided that his pet would be called Skittles.

Meet Skittles.

Skittles and the boy would play together every day.

Skittles was happy. He had his very own boy and all the wood he could munch on wood and lots of dirt to burrow in. But the boy thought Skittles looked lonely so he went off in the woods and found him a friend.

Meet Chocolate.

The boy told his mother that Skittles had a girlfriend. The mother who should have known to leave it alone asked the boy how he knew it was a girl. The boy admitted that he had discovered Skittles on top of Chocolate and therefore it must be a girl. The mother just smiled and walked away because she wasn't going to open that can of worms.

Skittles and Chocolate were living large in their bug condo enjoying each other's company, eating wood and burrowing in the dirt until one day Skittles (or maybe it was Chocolate, who can tell) made an escape. Apparently he was not so happy being confined to his bug condo and wanted to see the rest of the world. So he somehow lifted the top of the bug condo off, crawled down the shelf and headed off to see unchartered territory or perhaps more likely, is that the boys six year old brother just forgot to put Skittles away after playing with him. Either way, Skittles set off down the hall headed straight toward the mother's room. Luckily the father came upstairs at just about the time Skittles was crossing over into forbidden terrain.

The mother was horrified mildly upset about this turn of events. Her imagination played through several scenarios including the bug getting out and crawling on her in the middle of the night. Although this might seem unreasonable not likely to happen, the mother could not get it out of her mind.

So the day came that Skittles and Chocolate left their home for adventures unknown. The boy was sad to say goodbye but he understood that they were bugs and would survive. The mother, who was still afraid not a lover of such small creatures, was relieved.