[Trade] Bugs

On the desk laid a box. Bri didn’t know what was in the box yet, but Jonathan wanted to make it a surprise. The desire to tilt it over and reveal the hidden goodies was very tempting to do, but she didn’t want to disappoint her boyfriend by ruining what he considered to be a big surprise.

“Okay, ready?” Jonathan cleared his throat after coming in. He adjusted his usual red tie and pulled a loose single strand of hair out of his eyelashes. “I’ll hold your hand if it gets too much for you.” And the surprise under the box died for Bri, having already taken a wild guess before considering Jonathan’s line of work. Now that a implication had been made about the surprise being something that would scare her, Bri really wanted to run away now, but the look in Jonathan’s eyes made her stay.

As expected of a entomologist, under a box laid a fuzzy orange caterpillar. And Bri nearly screamed and fainted at the sight.

“This is the larva form of the Arctia Caja…” Jonathan started, gently poking at the baby moth. “The Garden Tiger Moth for short.” He let the small bug crawl up onto his hand where it slowly moved around the length and width of the human’s hand to explore it. “They’re usually found on the Eastern side of the world, but can be here in North America. I found this one hanging around the blackberry plants in the college greenhouse.” He let out a little laugh as the creature turned ship and dropped back onto the tabletop. “Harmless little bugger, I assure you.”

“Really now?” Bri quivered out. Even a little, slow, harmless critter like this one made her skin crawl and her knees to wobble like crazy. Her mind begged her to run. Find a boyfriend who studied dolphins or something less creepy! “Y-you sure it’s not lethal or anything…?”

“Unless you swallow one and choke on it.” Jonathan shrugged. “No, it can’t sting or inject any sort of poison on you. It can’t harm you unless you do something stupid.” He poked at the creature, and it reacted by popping back a bit. “Go ahead, touch it.” He waved to the creature, inviting his girlfriend to play with it. “It’s not going to do anything to ‘ya.”

Bri pursed her lips, coming to the horrifying realization that she had no choice in this manner. She trusted Jonathan, and if he said the icky little monster posed no threat to her, it wouldn’t be that bad as she thought. She trembled a finger over to the larva minding it’s own business on the table and poked all gentle like. It bounced back a bit, but continued to do the usual routine of exploring this world outside of the box. Didn’t offer much, just a long flat surface…

“Now let it go into your hand.” Jonathan ordered. Bri gulped. Sure, at least touching it didn’t make her skin boil, but putting into her hand? The feeling alone would kill her! But her boyfriend reached down and scooped up the bug with one hand to help her along the way. The bug managed to stay on Jonathan’s hand long enough before dropping down onto the backside of Bri’s.

She almost shrieked out loud and kneeled over on the spot…until the giddiness came over. The little creature’s teenie-tiny legs were so tickly! Bri started to giggle as the larva crawled over her hand. She thought it would be slimy and/or rough like sandpaper, but it felt pleasant and silly. She let it crawl all around her hand for a good long minute, observing it like her boyfriend would before gently putting back down on the table.

“See?” Jonathan sighed. “Not as bad as you thought it would be huh?”

“I guess…” Brit sighed as she watched the little thing crawl between he two. “…they aren’t so scary.”