A Fly On The Wall

Introduction1

For ages, flies have been here. They have earned (perhaps) the top ranking title as the most irritating (and disgusting) creature the world has ever seen. Frogs seem to love them though; but humans definitely do not—or rather, not the people in this story. A story that invites people to see things from a fly’s point-of-view. Therefore, those who have disdain for these tiny, pesky critters will finally hear what things are like for these little creatures in general; and what life has been like for “Noye Ying” in particular. As Noye the fly, carries out his daily excursions into nature—especially when he find’s himself in man’s territory. 2

Part I:3

“Bzzzzip! Bzzzzzip!” That sound…it played out like a broken record. Young Ralph had just sat down to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich under the shade of his bright yellow awning. Yes, it was almost too perfect—almost. “Bzzzip! Bzzzzip!” There it was again; only this time, Ralph felt something scurrying across his left forearm. It tickled him and without giving it a second thought, Ralph said: “I got you!” and smashed his sandwich against his arm—it was disgusting. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Ralph’s timing and his aim were both off. He had missed the buzzing bandit; he had failed to put and end to Noye the fly. 4

But Noye didn’t mind one bit. He returned to Ralph like a dog returns to its master. And he liked Ralph’s arm too as he licked on it. Noye’s tongue was too small for Ralph to know if resembled how his dog licked his arm. Noye treated himself to the peanut butter and jelly smudged on Ralph’s arm. If it had not have been too much to ask, Noye would have requested for a sip of Ralph’s milk to wash it all down. As it stood though, Noye simply thrived on the excitement of it all. The boy swatted and swatted at Noye. In and out, up and down—dodging that kid seemed like child’s play. Finally, Ralph became frustrated and tossed his tattered sandwich on the lawn and ran inside of his house in tears. Noye landed on the sandwich, rubbed his legs together and giggled, “hahaha…that was so easy, I could do it with one eye closed!” Then he licked and nibbled the edges of the sandwich.5

Unfortunately for Noye, he’s not the only fly in town. Others ‘bizz-zipped’ in and wanted some of the PB&J ‘delight’. Ricky, Ramos and Jeff were the shiny, greenback type of fly-guys. They bullied some of the smaller flies for a piece-of-the-action. Noye just nodded his head at the irony: after all, it was him who had worked so hard to ‘gross-out’ young Ralph causing him to abandon his sandwich. Now he had to share the ‘spoils of victory’ with such an unsavory gang. Noye was irritated with it and swirled in a circle. He flew up and surveyed the area. More flies were on the way and a stream of ants too. He realized that the world was too big for this non-sense. So he flew off leaving ‘clean-up’ to those scavengers on the ground. 6

Assured that he could find food and adventure elsewhere, Noye flew off through the yard. And from the corner of his eyes, he spied them down on the ground. The ants and the flies were having a confrontation about who had more right to the ‘goodies’. Noye could care less though, because he was feeling a bit mischievous. He started looking for ‘dangerous’ situations that could catch his fancy. So it was no wonder when (as if on cue) Noye happened upon a group of children eating ice cream in a playground. He thought to himself, “Wow…talk about easy-pickings. I’m not even hungry but what fly in their ‘right mind’ could resist such a tempting target?” Noye began a downward descent. He cloaked himself in ‘stealth-mode’ initially. In a tradition that spaned thousands of years, Noye made his trademark appearance. “Bzzzip! Bzzzzzzzip!” He landed on top of a three-year-old girl’s head. She didn’t even notice it at first. 7

Noye sort of hopped around on her hair, thinking out loud, “Very interesting…I like this hair style. I wonder what it cost?” Then he ‘bizz-zipped’ over to hear ear. He tickled it by creepy-crawling on it. She was licking on an ice cream cone and said “Ouch! That tickles!” and she scratched at her ear with her sticky fingers. Unknowingly, she smeared her ice cream-coated fingers across the side of her hair. Then Noye ‘bizz-zipped’ down to the side of her cheek; first on one side and then flew to the other side. The girl scratched the itching caused by Noye and accidentally dropped her cone on the ground. She cried out to her mother who was talking to a friend a few feet away. Noye’s laughter sounded like ‘bizzzing’ to the people. 8

The mother yelled, “Gosh! I hate flies! Did you see that Sally?” The mother was incensed. “Quick! Give me your newspaper, hurry!! There it is!” And the mother tried several times to smash Noye without success. Noye merely giggled and said, “haha, you have to be much, much faster than that – miss. You missed me!” Noye landed on the women’s collar without her even realizing it. Then he flew pass her ear “bizzzing” to her nose. The mother started smacking herself in the face and was screaming, “Yipes, yipes! Leave-me-alone!” 9