The Bats Flew Out Last Night
Somehow I ended up out on the front patio last night, I believe I had heard a strange noise somewhere out in the parking lot of the apartments and for some odd reason they always drag me out from the warmth of my two bedroom. The management was out there, I suppose due to the fact that she is the personal chauffeur for my upstairs neighbor while the woman's husband is out of the country. We began talking, as she was finishing off her cigarette, about random odds and ends. We've never been able to have a true conversation, always bits and pieces of something or other. I heard the squeaking behind me and spun around just in time to watch the bats begin their flight out from the roofs. I've always been fascinated with the strange little bug collectors. Perhaps it comes from my father. Dad use to test bat heads for the rabies virus and we use to hear the exploits of his day around the kitchen table at dinner. Or perhaps it is that memory of Dad waking me up from a deep sleep at my Grandparents house, just to drag me out to watch the millions of bats swarm out into the large yard behind the house. Either way, they grab hold of my curiosity every time I see them. Management was unimpressed, not fond of any critters that have wings yet I was enthralled with their acrobatic dance as they hunted down that little bug. I stood out there long after the Management slipped into my neighbors apartment yet ducked inside my own as soon as I heard them begin to leave. Never fond of my upstairs neighbor, who has a thing with sticking her nose into everyones business and explaining to me how to raise my children. I retreated back inside for the rest of the night, it was a bit chilly and I had some writing to do on my current story. Yet just the simple sighting of a dark winged critter pushing across the night sky was the hit in the head I needed for a new creature in my story. So I suppose it's true, the evil plot bunny lurks even in the shadows of the night. Hell, it even lurks in the very air we breathe.