It was a fiasco.   My sink and counter were black as night and moving like sand dunes in a windstorm.   Ants were everywhere.   Not in those neat streams I've come to admire, the ones that resemble well-made construction lines.   This was ant bedlam.   

    I blamed poor ant management for this army of confused ants frantically searching my kitchen for any morsel of food that may have fallen from my dinner plate and forgotten like an old person in a nursing home.   But when I cleaned the kitchen ten minutes ago, no ants were in sight.   Behind my back, a floodgate of darkness opened and washed over my once white counter.   It was a clear assault on my kitchen.   I was not going to stand for it.

    The Raid sat under the sink.   My secret weapon.   My H-Bomb if you will.  I was not going to try to negotiate with these insects.   They made the first hostile move.

    "Say hello to my little friend," I imitated.

    I pressed my finger on the trigger and let a stream of justice spray down upon the squirming dots.

    Panic ensued.

    They were defenseless.   Already running in every direction, they crashed into and ran over each other trying desperately to escape the poison that rained down upon them.   The venom poured over the counter and into the sink.

    Hundreds of ants writhed in pain.

    Those still moving were shot head on.

    Soon, the squirming ceased.

    Hundreds of black dots littered my counter.   The sour smell of Raid filled the air.

    My sink and counter resembled a battlefield.   Ants struck down in their prime.   Children fatherless.   Wives husbandless.   Husbands wifeless.   Hundreds of ant dreams unfulfilled.

    A virtual ant holocaust.

    And I was overwhelmed with guilt.

---

Authors Bio:

Tom Misuraca is a Boston native currently living in Los Angeles. Over sixty of his short stories have been accepted for publication in literary magazines all over the world, including Byline, Thema and Spoiled Ink.  He has also written and edited young adult books for Angel Gate Press.  Last summer, MidnightTimes.com profiled him on their website.  In early 2006, a screenplay he co-wrote with James Ferguson will begin filming.  When he's not writing, he works as a graphic designer. Visit his website: www.kidgoth.com.