Mozzie

1

Mozzie Story | Manik Permata

Image It is bedtime, so Anna gets ready with her bat. Not a sport bat, but an electric bat to kill mosquitoes. Although she sprays mozzie repellent on her skin every night, she will always get ready with her bat just in case some of super mozzies with good anti body system still fly around or hide somewhere before they finally show up. It’s a bit too much of a reaction, but she claims that she’s allergic to mozzie bite. One bite will make her skin full of reddish bumps. Believe me, it’s ugly, she says.

Her eyes sweep the entire room carefully. Cool, all clear. She brushes her hair before she climbs to bed. That’s when she notices one mosquito is flying above her head. Oh my God, what a noise! She thinks to herself. Her reflex is to take the bat again and randomly swing the bat above her head.

“Enough already!”

Anna freezes in front of the mirror. Her mind goes to every ghost story her friends ever told her. She can see her entire room from the mirror reflection. No one. Nobody. No ghost.

“One more swing and I’ll suck your blood empty”.

Anna turns purple. Now her mind goes to vampire movie trailers she saw at the mall. She has never really watched one but she knows what a vampire is.

@menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

2

“I’m talking to you lady. Don’t be rude, look at me in the eye when I’m talking to you”.

And there it is a mozzie landing right on Anna’s nose. Anna can’t hit her own nose.

“This is not the right time for me to explain everything to you, but yes, we can talk. Mosquitoes can talk and understand you”.

Anna steps back to sit on the edge of her bed. She just needs to sit down.

“Then… when… is… uhm… the right time?”

The mosquito flies and lands on the bed too next to Anna.

“You’ve killed many of us” says the mosquito ignoring Anna’s question. The mosquito explains how many of his family have died because of Anna’s electric racket.

“Well, what can I say, I’m allergic to your bite and to be honest you guys are just annoying” says Anna not daring to face the mozzie.

The mozzie flies again and lands on Anna’s nose again.

“I would bite you right here right now… if I could” says the mozzie and flies back on to the bed.

“What do you mean if you could? You guys bite all the time whenever you see human”.

“Apparently you know nothing about mosquito, so maybe you should stop talkin’. I am a male mosquito. Males don’t bite. We can’t. The biting thing is all for ladies. All males are vegetarian; we only drink plant juices…”

Anna bursts in laugh before Mr. Mozzie finishes talking. “Ahahahaa… vegetarian”, she says, and continues laughing. The mozzie is staring at her right now with evil eyes.

“No, sorry. You may continue Mr. Mozz” Anna says, but still giggling.

“What’s your problem?”

“Nothing. It’s just, the word vegetarian. For a mosquito… well, never mind” Anna tries to swallow to stop her from laughing, and be ready to listen again.

“You have to help me” says the mosquito to the point. @menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

3

“And why is that?” says Anna not interested. She gets up and brushes her hair again. The mosquito flies around her and keeps explaining.

“Because you have killed many of us and now it’s time for you to give back. And well, I don’t have any choice; you are the only human right here now” Anna still acts like she doesn’t care, even if she has a talking mosquito in her room.

“My wife needs your help. It’s only me and her now, so you have to do something. You’re the reason why it’s only the two of us now”.

Anna gets on her bed, “What’s your problem? Blood?”

“Yes. Let her suck your blood” “Are you kidding me? You better go away now before I hit you with this” Anna gets her racket again.

“If I have to beg, I will. Don’t you know that a male only lives for a week? I have three days left, and I will do anything to save my loved one. There was nothing I could do when you smashed my other family but now I have to do something.

She needs lots of blood before she can lay eggs. But she’s too sick now to fly around and suck human’s blood. And that’s one thing I can’t do”. There’s a desperate tone when it says that. Anna can sense it too. But to think of a mosquito biting her, under her willingness, that is just crazy.

“Can’t you just go to other rooms? Bite my mom, or dad, or my brother, he’s pretty annoying, so I’m giving you permission” Anna says as she gets up to reach the door.

“Hey! My wife is near this room, she’s too tired to fly, and have you ever seen a mosquito carries another?”

“I can’t do that, okay?! One bite from you and I suffer the itchiness, that’s so ugly, I can’t go to school like that”.

The mozzie flies and lands on her nose once again. “Listen, young human, I actually am offering you a chance to do good deed, for once in your life. If you were a mosquito you would understand!” As the mozzie says that, a huge thunder heard from Anna’s room and in a split second the room is hit by a bright white flash that Anna thinks she is stroke by lightning.

Before she realizes what happens, she suddenly can see the mosquito is out of his nose, and becomes so close in front of her eyes, for she can see it right in front of her in big size. @menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

4

Wait! Everything in her room is in mega big size now. Anna holds her breath and runs to check on the mirror, as she feels something’s wrong with her arms and legs. No, she is not running, she is flying!

Worse than her nightmare, what she sees in the mirror is a reflection of a mosquito. Her brain can’t figure out what’s happening, or how. Few seconds later another mozzie joins her.

“I said ‘if’ you were a mosquito, you don’t have to transform” the mozzie says, and Anna knows it hides a giggle in its words.

“Whatever it is, let’s get it over with” says Anna shakily. Somehow her brain has also been updated with information that she has to help the mozzie to get things back to normal again. No matter how crazy it sounds, she can’t argue with anyone. What she knows is just she has to go to school perfectly tomorrow.

“So you mean you can help me?” the mosquito’s eyes practically are getting bigger.

“Now I don’t know how”.

“Come with me, my wife always know what to do”.

Anna follows the mosquito, they fly towards her window. It’s kinda cool to be able to fly, she thinks, but as a mozzie? Yuck…

The window is slightly open, makes it easy for them to get out. In her head Anna reminds herself to always check for the window, never let it open again. Maybe that’s how mosquitoes keep coming in and out even she equips herself with the bat and repellent and everything.

The mozzie leads her to a flower pot right below her window. Again, she repeats it in her head ‘get rid of pot tomorrow, get rid of pot tomorrow, get rid of pot tomorrow’.

They’re getting into the pot. And Anna can only see another mosquito sitting on the edge of the pot. She never realized mosquitoes have different face too. She always thought they look the same. But this mozzie looks awful. But still Anna doesn’t know how to react. She feels sorry for that lady mosquito but she knows she’s been hating them forever.

“Hi honey, you’ve brought a friend” says the lady mozzie, while Anna is flying around clumsily, doesn’t know what to say.

“Uhm, Lea, this is Anna, the girl inside”. @menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

5

Anna sees the confusion in the lady mosquito’s face. The only happy face there belongs to the male mozzie. And Anna really is not happy about this. So she steps up – or flies up.

“Yes, it’s me, Anna. I don’t know how your man got himself a deal with an unknown spirit and got myself transformed into one of you. Now let’s do whatever your problem is and continue with our little lives”.

Lea doesn’t say anything, as she’s still really confused. She keeps looking at her husband then to Anna.

“It’ll be an easier situation if she is still human, Bong” Lea says.

“Bong? What kind of a name is Bong?” Anna says, can’t help laughing.

“Well it happens to be my name! And Lea, I can’t explain either what’s going on here, but she’s all we’ve got. How do you think she can help you?”

“Well, I don’t know if you have a natural talent to be a mosquito Anna, but I’d really appreciate it if you could help me get some blood”.

“I wonder about that too… but how? Do you have some kind of… syringe or something? I could fly to get my brother’s blood” Anna says, thinking it’s a payback time to Andy, her brother, for all the cruelty he’s done to his sister.

“Sorry Anna, we have nothing. You just need to suck the blood, hold it, and give it to me”.

Anna feels like she loses power of her wings. She has to suck blood? She has to taste blood? Her brother’s blood? In her mouth? Carrying it all the way here?

But she knows she just has to do it, do whatever, to get back to human form.

“Just one trip? One round? That’ll be enough for you, Lea?” “Yes, dear. That’ll be enough for tonight” “For tonight? But this should be the only night this crazy thing could happen.

What kind of sorcery is this?”

“I will pray to angels in the sky, to get you to be human again, for the rest of your life, for you to do such a noble deed for mosquitoes”.

Anna can’t argue more. This lady mosquito is even sweeter than any humans she’s ever met.

“But there is another thing I’d like you to do, Anna dear”. @menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

6

Anna sighs.

“I need my strengths to lay eggs. For a couple of days, could you invite someone into your room, and let me suck their blood? I will never want to suck yours, Anna, my savior”.

So that’s the deal. Anna is now flying up to her own room, with a mission: go to Andy’s room and bite him in many different spots. She lands on her bed, observing her giant bedroom. This seems like an entire city, she thinks. She stares at the electric mosquito bat, her ultimate weapon. Now she knows how scary that thing is. Imagine being hit by that, less than a second and you’re burnt. No chance, no mercy. Human is so cruel.

She continues towards the door and into Andy’s room. She gets in from the window, she knows her brother never closes the window at night, either to let the breeze in, or to let himself out anytime. Andy is snoring with his sneakers on, backpack on the floor and his stuff all over the room. But somehow now the smell of this room doesn’t bother Anna anymore. She kinda likes the damp smell of the pile of clothes.

And what’s weirder is Andy’s blood now seems so tempting, not disgusting at all. She has the urge to suck the blood now.

And so that’s what she’s doing now. She knows she has to be quick and get it over with, to hold the blood in her mouth and give it to Lea, but the taste is so good that she wants to have it for herself for some more.

She’s enjoying it too much that she jumps in horror when she hears her mother comes in.

“Oh Andy!!!”

Andy murmurs something no one can understand, and his heavy hand goes fast to hit the mosquito on his other arm, Anna. Anna flies away still in horror, trying not to swallow the blood in her mouth.

“That’s why you should clean up. This room better be tidy by tomorrow” Anna’s mom says as she closes the door and leaves. Andy sits up, scratching his now itchy arm.

“Stupid mozzie. I’ll smash you when I find you” Andy says with eyes closed.

Anna thinks she stops breathing for a while now. Watching Andy takes off his shoes then slams his body back on the bed.

@menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

7

That gets Anna thinking. To have meal in a room like Andy’s, with tempting smell and all, almost gets her killed, what about trying to have meal in her own room? With her laser eyes for mosquito, her electric racket, and her brutality towards all kinds of insects? It’s practically suicide just to have a drop of blood.

She shakes her head and decides to just flies off back to Lea and Bong. But just as she is about to fly off the window, a house lizard suddenly appears at the edge of the window, making a slurping sound. She feels like everything moves in a slow motion now, trying to escape as fast as she can, with a suddenly heavy wings, and the urge to spurt all the liquid in her mouth. She can feel the breath of the lizard as its long wet sticky tongue almost gets her. The horror of it…

She gives all the blood she’s been carrying to Lea, still speechless.

“Did you see a ghost or something?” Bong asked.

“A mosquito ghost would have been fun; this bloody trip could win a Grammy for best horror” Lea drinks all the blood and her face brightens up. I feel good about it too, but there’s no way will I ever do that again, Anna thinks to herself.

Lea and Bong thank Anna for what she’s done. They promise not to bite Anna, and Anna promises that she will try to help Lea get the blood she needs.

She closes her eyes, trying not to cry, for her near-death experience. And before she knows, when she opens her eyes, she is now standing outside the house, near the window of her room. Her heart beats as fast as before. Scared, but she is looking at the flower pot just right below her. She knows a female mosquito is lying there, maybe waving at her now, although she prefers to believe that she might just did some kind of sleep walking. But she knows the truth.

The next day, just as Anna is tidying her books on her desk, Andy bursts into her room. “Anna can I borrow your mozzie racket?” Andy asks.

“Why?” “Well to use it as it is meant to use. Last night I got a mosquito bite, and I think I got it again just now, time to rumble now” “No! Just leave them alone!”

Andy looks at his sister in shock. “What do you mean leave them alone? You hate them more than I do”

@menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)

8

“Maybe I did. But… don’t you ever think about it, that they’re innocent. What do they do wrong? All they do is just looking for food to live. And they put their lives in great danger just for food. There’s a risk of death just for food. Imagine a life like that!”

Andy can’t believe what he hears. “Come again?”

“And all of that just for what? To be in a food chain below lizards or frogs or the electric racket? How’s that fair? Imagine you have to sacrifice your life just to grab something from the fridge when you’re hungry. And what if they can hear you asking a racket to kill them? It’s very rude. And offensive!”

Andy closes Anna’s door and Anna can hear him calling out their mom.

“Mooooom, you gotta check on Anna, something’s wrong with her!” .:The End:.

@menginspirasiID

Writer: Manik Permata

©Menginspirasi (2013)