Ben is the strong silent type. You’re more likely to catch him reading a book in the bath than you are to see him raging on the dancefloor of a sweaty nightclub. Either lying in silence or to the strings of classical music, Ben stays calm… unless something breaks his focus.
Lounging in near darkness with only candle flickers lighting the room, Ben relaxed in a steamy tub, drifting in and out of the moment. Losing track of time and being at peace was disturbed by a noise in the distance.
Thinking it was some kind of small aircraft flying overhead (he’s not in New Jersey so it wasn’t mysterious drones), Ben soon realized it was faint buzzing from across the room. It came and went every few minutes. Gradually the slight sound was steady and getting louder.
Soon, it was evident that a fly had penetrated the silence and the buzzing was deafening. Attempting to ignore it, Ben could sense the critter was encroaching on his imaginary – and literal – no-fly zone. Splashing up water every time the insect’s noise drew near, Ben thought he would scare off his intruder to the point of no return. No luck.
After nearly one hour of interruption, Ben emerged, dripping in bubbles and trekked across the room to flick on the lights and confront the pint-sized pest. Alas, the bug was nowhere to be seen but the illumination meant it was only a matter of time before buzz-splat-happy dance.
Experiencing an uncomfortable chill, Ben relented to the tub to warm up and almost as if being watched for the perfect time to return, the sound began again, now feeling as if it were echoing through the room.
Keeping its distance, the fly made several stops on the bathroom mirrors, still out of reach from Ben. Slowly Ben made his way across the tub and gradually crept out of the water to attempt a squishy smash. Foiled again, as the fly made a quick getaway.
As if taunting Ben, the fly landed on the towel rack beside the tub. With an aggressively fast swing, Ben attempted another kill only to miss entirely and knock the rack off the wall, ripping out a piece of tile as the towel and bar crashed to the floor. Undeterred, Ben continued the chase thinking that each swing would be the last for the buzzing motherfucker.
Feeling a rage building, Ben saw that the fly liked landing on the mirrors. Now, with the felled towel wrapped like a caveman’s club, Ben took another swing at the fly, this time connecting with the mirror and the backswing catching his phone on the counter, sending it into the bath several feet away.
In a rush to salvage the drowning device, Ben rescued it from the water and checked the status to see if it was broken. Though it powered off upon impact, he was eventually able to restart the device, though the microphone and speaker needed time to dry.
Seeking redemption after nearly destroying his expensive phone, Ben prepared to redo battle and ultimately win the war. Now with the bathroom door closed, Ben was convinced the fly had nowhere to go – and only one was getting out alive. (Though at this point all money was on the fly, right?)
Looking around the room as he stood motionless, Ben briefly believed he’d succeeded. Slowly turning his head to survey the scene, there was no sound and no other movement in the room. Ben- 1, Fly- 0? Not exactly.
Inside the light fixture above the mirror, a black silhouette appeared. Making its way around the frosted light cover, the fly perhaps felt the heat – literally – and couldn’t stay on the bulb much longer. Realizing he’d likely smash the cover and potentially the bulb, Ben allowed for the exit to reengage in open-air combat.
As the fly took off, Ben was close behind swinging and swatting with little success. Grabbing for the shower hose, he cranked the hot water and started spraying all over the fly’s flight path, soaking nearly everything in the room. Scalding the sucker felt like Ben’s best bet.
Eventually, and with water dripping from the ceiling and puddling on the floor, Ben downed the fly into the tab and switched the shower head to the most intense blast of water just to make sure the deed was done.
Huffing and puffing as though he just survived a body-busting boxing match, Ben felt victorious no matter how much destruction he had to deal with when the dust settled – and dried.