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It’s good to be back, and thanks to those of you who commented. I find I am greatly influenced by the praise of others, which I should be getting over by this time of my life. And so it is you find me posting again, the second day in a row. This will be quite a different sort of story; a tale of horror and strange invisible forces.
It all started Friday morning when I woke up, sometime in the vicinity of before 11 AM. Still ostensibly recovering from a bout of flu as well as a bout of getting-up-early-for school, I was sleeping in with only a tinge of guilt. I yawned and reached across my back to scratch an irritating itch. I got up and headed for the bathroom, idly scratching a few more places. By now my mind was becoming aware that, despite all the helpful scratching, the itching was becoming decidedly worse. A look in the mirror showed raised, red welts in blotchy patches across my torso. What was this? Had someone sabotaged my bed with poison ivy? Was I becoming allergic to my poodles? Did I have (shudder) bed bugs? I showered and found some hydrocortisone cream to smear across the welts. My mouth felt kind of funny too….my lower lip was swelling and feeling a little numb. I pulled all the sheets and blankets off my bed and dumped them in the washer with a goodly dose of detergent.
I kind of ignored everything after that and headed for work. The business of the day put the morning’s troubles out of my mind for the most part, though the fat lower lip was kind of hard to forget.
UltraDad came home that night, and the next morning I thought I had a few new itchy red welts, though he didn’t seem to have been bothered. We discussed setting off bug bombs. That was as far as it got that day, and we went off to town with Pat, to dine out and enjoy the new Indiana Jones movie. It was, as were the first ones, filled with swashbuckling, supernatural events and one disaster after another. As we exited the theater, UltraDad voiced his opinion that the movie was not realistic. “You don’t think so?” I asked sarcastically. “No,” he said. “Harrison Ford has got to be in his 60’s. A guy that old couldn’t really do all that stuff.” Hmmm.
That night UltraDad slept in the back bedroom. I think he might have had premonitions of the evening’s horrors to come. I went to bed fairly early and other than a few idle scratches, gave no thought to the monsters that might be lurking under, around, and in my bed. How could I have slept through it all, you may wonder, as these denizens of the night roamed across my body, biting at will? I have asked myself the same question, time and time again, but the fact remains. I DID sleep through it and the next morning found my worst fears confirmed. The red welty patches were tripled and this time it was my UPPER lip that had been bitten. It was swollen and tight, protruding hideously. It was clear I would NOT be going to church that morning.
This time the bug bombs were set. We put the cat outside, gathered up the poodles and headed to Pat’s house to while away several hours until it was safe, as per bug bomb instructions, to return. “Can you believe this?” UltraDad asked Pat, his words clearly showing his concern, “She looks like she is from the Planet of the Apes.”
“No she doesn’t,” Pat said, examining me critically. “She looks more like she is from the planet of the Parrots.” So much for sympathy.
Pat urged some Benadryl on me and I reluctantly accepted. I seemed to remember not responding well to Benadryl in the past. Seemed like it made me feel kind of weird and jumpy. We settled down to watch one of the old Indiana Jones movies Pat had purchased the day before. This time around the Benadryl affected my in quite a different way. I conked out. At one point, I stumbled back to Pat’s guest bed, and when I woke up, the movie was long over and UltraDad had gone back home to de-bug-bomb the house. And the lip seemed not quite so misshapen.
The invisible forces have not been back, though they haunt me in my dreams. My lips were bad enough, but what if they had bitten my nose, an appendage not tiny to begin with? Maybe some day the memories will fade and I will once again have a peaceful night’s slumber. I pray it comes soon.

UltraMom