Ben - Chapter Ten

Staring down, the disappointment could be seen focused in her eyes as they were locking with Ben’s. This focus could cut through the thickly tense atmosphere and reach into one’s throat, carving out that dreaded lump.

Mere seconds later, round two of the foul nutwaters came gushing forward, followed by a curt dry heave, cough and then a final pathetic wipe out of courtesy to all present and involved.

The air was weighted with tension, so laden that one could smell it over the permeating cheesy nut smell, flowing like a bilge pump past the branches and into several burrows inhabited by the now flooded ground bees.

Fireflies danced menacingly around, only to highlight the humiliation Ben was suffering of his own seeming volition. The fireflies were the comedians of the forest and they were not letting go.

This would be their food, their ammunition, their well decorated savings pot. Their winning lottery leaf. This story was going as far as their wings could take them.