Hives, Fireflies, and a Good Old Fashioned Electric Shock

I broke out in hives this morning.  It happens from time to time, though the hives have been making more frequent appearances lately because whether or not I want to admit it, I am stressed about being unemployed.

Usually the hives appear on my forearm, or down the side of my neck.  They hang around for a day or two, then skip away quietly.  This morning was different, however.  They appeared on my stomach.  I would be irritated about them except this time they reminded me of a childhood experience that I thought would be great to share.  Let's face it, sometimes fodder for my blog hits me out of nowhere.

When I was around 6 years old, we were visiting some of my parents' friends for the evening.  Their kids were older than I was, in their teens, but they played with me.  They were rather cool.  They lived on a farm.  It was a small farm, with a couple of cows, a horse (maybe two), lots of dogs, some chickens, and maybe a goat (or that could have been my little brother, it's kind of fuzzy now).  I remember we were catching fireflies (a.k.a. lightning bugs), starting at early dusk.   We we were putting the fireflies we caught into a jar with a lid, but air holes were punched in the lid so as not to kill them (though I don't understand that logic because the older kids were taking the bugs and smashing them on their shirts so their shirts would glow, killing the bugs anyway).

I was so excited.  Mainly because these older cool kids were playing with me instead of ignoring me.  I ran around like a little pixie, running and jumping and laughing and catching the fireflies.  I saw a HUGE firefly, the largest one I'd ever seen.  His light was the twice the size as the others.  I had to have him damn it!  I chased him, and just as he flew over the fence toward the horse, I jumped, grabbed hold of the fence and reached...wait...I've just grabbed hold of an electric fence!

My entire body was shaking and jerking, and my teeth were rattling like a bag of marbles!  I couldn't move.  I couldn't let go.  I was captured like a fly in a web (only this web was belting out some powerful jolts).  I remember the bigger kids trying to pry my hands off of the fence, and it wasn't easy.  After a few seconds though, they had finally freed me.

They carried me into the house where the adults were and I was shaking and my speech was a bit slow and stuttering.  I had welts all over my stomach and arms an legs that looked like I'd swallowed a bunch of rats and the rats were trying to scratch their way out from the inside.  May hair was standing up straight (yes, that really does happen) and I felt like I'd just come back from the dead.

I don't remember much after that.  My parents and their friends had brought some cool clothes in to put on my head (oh, yeah, I had a headache too), and they were cooing over me and so sorry about what had happened.  I remember thinking that I was like a superhero now or something.  I'd survived being shocked and I could probably shoot gamma rays from my eyes, hitting my sister and brother and melting them into oblivion if I wanted.

Turns out I didn't acquire super powers, just some minor scratches and welts that healed within a few days and my hair didn't stick up the next morning.  I can tell you that I did not even consider catching fireflies after that, and when I see those greenish-yellow lights in my backyard now, I shudder.  I myself was a "firefly" that long ago night so I have walked in their shoes (or flown in their wings...) and that's as close as I ever need to get to them again.

--Fortuitous Observer