A fly on the wall

[The booming metropolis of Commoditybarn is a city that is always a buzz of activity. Everyone lives life to the fullest. When you only get a life that lasts about a month you have to cram it all in.

I was born here in the warm, moist scrapings pile.  It is one of the most comforting places to spend your days as a maggot. Not much to worry about. Wriggling from one juicy spot to another.  No one messed with our scraping pile. They just occasionally moved it from here to there. Funny how you don't know what you got til it's gone. However, my 2,500+ siblings drove me crazy. And that number doesn't even include all my cousins that were in the pile too. As soon as I could disappear into my pupa case, I did.

When I emerged with my beautiful wings, I was free of the crazies and onto heights. Ready to explore Commoditybarn and all its splendor. No worries just the wind in my hair. It took all of 10 seconds for reality to catch up with me. Splat! One of my sisters, who happened to be flying next to me, ended up murdered. I would soon find out these beasts were called Squishers.

Squishers come in all shapes and sizes, and are utterly terrifying. In the morning the small Squishers come barreling in. You know that saying " The early bird gets the worm? " It is wrong (and why do the birds always get the sayings?). It should be : "The early fly doesn't get run over by the Squisher." The fast, little Squishers zip in and crush us while we are sleeping in our grass. If you sleep in, you sleep forever.

When the panic recedes from scary Squisher wake-up call, I am off to breakfast. (You should know, I do not panic. I am extremely fast. My family on the other hand does panic. A lot. Panic is hard to get around in so I wait until they calm.) All meals are served in family buffet style. By family, I mean you're literally sharing everything with your family all around on the same crumb. And by buffet, I mean literally eveything is laid out everywhere.  There's a vast assortment of deliciousness. There's powdery food, clumpy food, smelly food, mushy food. It all is irrelevant when it comes to taste because it has to be liquidified to be eaten through my straw mouth.  I do like standing on different things while I eat which is why I mention the variety.

The buffet

During mealtime, I have to keep about 3,000 of my eyes open for the Mammoth Squishers. They are slower than the baby ones but they can wipe out hundreds of my kind in one swoop. The monsters are constanly swarming around our food. Can you imagine how annoying it is to be sipping on a nice warm snack just to have a Squisher barge in and make you flee for your life?  Rude.

Once I'm full, I like to go exploring, lounge in the sun, and play with the Dawdlers. Dawdlers are insanely slow. The baby Squishers bring them into Commoditybarn and they occasionally spend time with the Mammoth Squishers. I don't know what their purpose is. I don't even know if they have a purpose.  Regardless,  I've played some fun games of tag with them. I've never been tagged.  The old flies tell me I shouldn't be flying near the Dawdlers. "Dawdlers are dangerous." The old coots must need their eyes checked.

Today, I've flown into one of the Dawdlers' cages. It is pretty exhilarating.  There's this thing that blows a constant growling wind. I think I'll use it to train my wings. Gotta bulk up. Ladies love well-toned, strong wings. There are also force fields in this cage. I keep trying to fly out in the sky but the force field keeps smacking me in the face. The only way in and out seems to be the moveable wall. There are two big lizards here. One said his name was Jack and that the other one was his wife Loraine. I stay a safe distance from them because I know we flies are a lizard's lunch. There are a couple other flies that braved the same journey. These adventurers keep to themselves. Just the way I like it.

The Dawdler here doesn't do much. Just looks at things and uses its weird looking feet to pound on something. Up close they are so peculiar looking. I don't know why the oldies say to beware. I've made many attempts to play tag with this Dawdler to no avail. I think I'll search for food before I hit the gym.

Something smells good. A fruity, sticky smell. It feels like puddle of orange heaven under my feet. Yum! So sweet! Wait! The Dawdler is swatting a me with its paws. First, the Squishers, now you.  Geez, eating ain't easy.

Another one has come into the cage. Good. While they are distracting each other, I will fly down for one more sip. Ahhh. It is nothing like the buffet food. I think thi... FLY AW]

Splat!
I may have gotten used to the flies buzzing on me, but I really wish these flies would leave my orange soda alone! Welcome to the fly capital of the world!
Or something like that...

Thanks for reading.