This morning we woke up after sleeping from about 4-11:00 AM.  I might have been a little hypomanic.  We went over to my parents house, and had lovely collards and black eyed peas and sausage and corn bread. 

After lunch we went for a walk.  The weather was overcast and a pleasant 70 degrees.  We were very excited that it was going to be a very nice walk, so enthusiastic in fact that Andrew suggested we walk over to Kapok Park.  And that was our downfall.

I was wearing yoga pants, a skirt, and a wide open necked shirt.  I was walking with my mom, looking at plants and various things when I noticed a mosquito on my leg.  I smacked it and kept going.

We went across the McMullen Booth bridge.  My parents were very interested in the progress they are making on the park there.  It’s been closed the entirety of the time we have been living in Clearwater.  They have made quite a bit of progress, but it’s slow going.  They’ve had a ‘help wanted’ sign up for months.

Across the bridge, we went past the baseball fields, then the soccer fields.  I smacked another mosquito. We pondered the tree with the elephant ear shaped seed pods.  I took a few pictures for identification purposes. I haven’t looked them up yet though.

Then we walked into the forest.

The path winds down, maybe 10 feet into a sunken patch of boggy wood for a few hundred yards.  In months past we have had a few mosquitos through that part of the path, enough to annoy.  Enough to needle. Not this time.

Today was overcast.  Today was maybe a week from the hard frost.  Today was an even 70 degrees and the day before had rained long and hard.  There was standing water puddling everywhere in the forest floor, and the mosquitos erupted with unforeseen force.

A mosquito flew in my face, I waved it away.  I looked down, and a mosquito was on my shin.  I killed it.  I looked behind myself, and a growing cloud of buzzing, hungry insects were pursuing each leg.  I urged my mom to walk faster.

I am not a person much bugged by bugs.  I worked at a state park known for its insect and arachnid population and lived at peace with the residents.  I stay serene in the face of flies, moths, beetles and gnats.  But I cannot sit idle while being eaten.

I pulled my mom faster through the gloom.  She also had a swarm following her.  I killed a mosquito on her neck, in her hair.  She was bitten on the hand.  We kept walking, getting to the top of the hill, emerging from the dark woods.

I slowed down, to give her a minute to rest.  We talked about how unusual it was to have so many mosquitos.  We talked about how they never follow us up the hill into the open.  We talked.  A mosquito flew into my face.  I asked my mom to find it and kill it.

She looked at me and her eyes widened in horror.  She turned me around and started smacking my legs.  My dad clapped one in front of me, Andrew killed one on my arm.  I saw the cloud surrounding me, looked Andrew in the eyes and said “We are nearly there, but I’m going home.”

I took off running in my big work boots.  I ran all the way through the forest.  Andrew, bless him, kept up pretty well.  I slowed upon leaving the forest, but I couldn’t wait for my parents.  The mosquitos were coming, following, pursuing.  I didn’t stop until we were at the top of the bridge.

I killed upwards of a dozen of the pests, but I cannot fight the forces of nature.  We made it back to the apartment sweaty, damp, itchy, and covered in smears of dead mosquito.  But we were alive.  I had survived.  I was unbitten.