dirty birdy a short story
Crackers the cockroach hung his feelers low over his brow as he headed across pristine white tiles to his little spot under the washing machine. His wife, Cotton was trying to piece together some dinner from what little food they’d managed to save during the week. She looked up at him with hope in her eyes,
“Did you find anything?”
“Nothing”
Cracker’s shook his head woefully.
“There’s nothing here for us Crackers… Its just too clean. Not a crumb to be found…”
Cracker’s little heart was beating fast beneath his exoskeleton as he saw the longing in his wife’s eyes.
“We need to find somewhere…different
Somewhere where you can’t tell the carpet from the crumbs, where nobody bother’s with dustbins, somewhere where ****** is airborne…”
“But Where?? Crackers? ”
“I have heard of such a place. They call it “SAM’S HOUSE”.
“I thought that was merely a legend”
“ No, Darling it is true. The journey is long and treacherous but we have to make a change”
Cotton shuddered “Cracker’s I’m frightened”
But frightened as they were, the pair knew what they had to do, they headed off in search of the fabled land. For days and days they travelled following a peculiar and tempting smell. Cotton nearly collapsed from exhaustion on the way but Cracker’s tried his best to keep up her spirits. As they travelled they were comforted by the growing stench. Finally they started to notice signs that they were on the right track. A snotty tissue abandoned on a stairwell provided much needed nourishment to the pair. Next they found a cold rasher of bacon, a used tampon rank with blood, some congealed fat from a porkroast. They couldn’t believe their luck. And then just as they thought life couldn’t get any better they looked through an open doorway and saw the paradise they had imagined.
Cotton was so filled with joy that she ran into the room, leaping over wilting French fries and pop-corn kernels, and splashing in puddles of urine with glee.
A thunderous raw sounded across the room. Cotton looked up trembling as an immense shadow engulfed the space around her. The shadow was cast by a monstrous limb: THE ARM OF SAM as it trawled along the floor in search of left over potato chips and slimy tic tacs. Cotton was dazed, she couldn’t move. She had seen many humans but never one so enormous and menacing. She couldn’t even hear her husband’s cries of warning.
“Cotton be careful”, Cracker’s shouted but it was too late…