The lost boy gripped the handle bars of his bike. His destiny was to get home and he could feel an adrenaline rush through out his body. His eyes were shiny and with a smile of hope he pumped his legs up and down to generate speed on his bike. He clutched the handle bars of his bike firmly. His lungs felt overworked with each breath he exhaled. The soft breeze of early fall ran into his face, but kept his stature on the bicycle as strong as possible by standing upright above the seat and stood on the peddles.

It was 3:00 a.m. and as he turned off the highway he thought how wonderful it was now that he wouldn’t have to stare at the headlights of incoming cars. It would be meadow and country roads all the way to his house. He shook off the feeling of being hit by a car and continued on his way down the street. He was from a small town where everyone knew each other. He thought of himself as the Midnight Biker because he biked at night. It added a little mystery to him just as everyone thought he was a mystery.

He was strong from biking to the high school for four years and busted twelve bikes in the process. His arms flexed tight as well as his legs while he peddled his ass off on his mountain bike. The lost boy felt invincible and continued on his journey home.

He felt the wind hit his face and dried the sweat from his cheeks. Suddenly he lost control; fell off his bike and collapsed onto the pavement where he scraped his knee. He looked around, realizing he was in the middle of the street and felt something in his ear. It was a sound of chewing and fluttering of wings, which echoed through out his ear canal. It was trying to move in even more and it hurt.

There was a light at the end of the dark tunnel for the lost boy. He walked to a well lit house that was in front of him. The fluttering and chewing kept agitating him. The lost boy knocked at the door, but nobody answered. He grew impatient and scared as he knocked again, but harder.

“Come on please,” he cried.

Suddenly, he saw the door bell, and hit it. He waited until two people came to the door and they looked at him concerned. One was a man wearing his pajamas and held a handgun. His wife was behind him in her night gown and they huddled behind the door.

“Can we help you?” asked the man.

The lost boy cried, “there’s something in my ear and I want to know if you can see it?”

The lost boy could see the man was determined not just to protect his house and

wife, but also to kill anyone who bothered him late at night to look in someone’s ear.

“I don’t see anything,” replied the man.

“I’m not putting on a show, and I don’t have any friends here to rob you. I have something in my ear.”

Slowly the man came out from his door to get a better look. He looked confused at the lost boy and thought he was insane. He cocked his gun in his hand as though he was expecting anything.

“No I don’t see anything!” he answered.

The lost boy felt anguish because there was no way to show what was in his ear. He wished he had some way to prove it, but even he didn’t know what was in his ear. It probably was a bat and it was trying to squeeze into his ear drum to create a nest. That’s all the lost boy needed a bat making a home in his brain.

“Where do you live?” asked the man.

The lost boy cried in pain as he pointed to the road, “I just live up the road from here!”

The pain and fluttering of the insect living in his ear hurt. The lost boy could not determine what it was like to experience the pain with any other specific feeling. He gathered what strength he had to try to get home.

“Will you be all right?” asked the man.

The lost boy sucked in some air and sighed, “I’ll be fine.”

As he left, he knew he made himself look like a total idiot by going to a

strangers house and screaming that something was in his ear when they couldn’t see

what was in his ear. He could not bike the same as he had before the incident. He was unbalanced for what seemed an eternity of madness and like a damaged ship going home. The lost boy got home and cried to his mother, “Mother, mother, I have something in my ear.”

His mother woke up to see what her son was screaming about. It was five in the morning and she was half asleep. Her warm tenderness calmed him down as they tried to figure out what was wrong.

“I don’t see anything. Try using the water in the faucet or Q-Tips,” she suggested. After sticking his ear to the faucet failed and the Q-tips caused more harm than good he began to get restless.

“Mother, none of it worked!” he screamed.

His mother had just gotten off the phone with the doctor who told her to use a

water dropper. Was the lost boy prepared for this? At this point, he was going crazy. His mother stuck the muzzle of the filled water dropper in the boy’s ear. The pure triumph to kill it and get it out was a top priority for her son. His mother tried to get the bothersome pain from his ear, but she failed. His mother called the doctor again. “Doctor, it didn’t work, the thing is still in his ear.” There was a brief silence for a moment that seemed to lead into eternity of pain for the lost boy. “Ok, I’ll bring him tomorrow, “ replied his mother.

The lost boy withered in pain as the fluttering and chewing got worse. It hurt even

more as he laid on his ear. He ached in pain and felt it dig even deeper and it made him squirm. His mother finished her last few words to the doctor and hung up the phone.

“I made an appointment for you in the morning with the doctor. All I can say is sleep on it for now.”

“Sleep on it! Are you for real? How am I suppose to sleep with this thing in my ear?”

His mother handed him a heating pad that had been used for his ear aches. In

agony, the lost boy tried to get to sleep. He brought the heating pad to its maximum

temperature so it almost burned the inside of his ear. Before he knew it he was asleep

and had dreams of a creature eating his brain and laying its eggs behind his eyes. He swatted the side of his head when he felt a fly land on him.

The next morning the lost boy and his mother went to visit the doctor. He was hoping the doctor had a better way of getting it out. He looked from side to side to all the people that were waiting for their own problems that they had yet to endure. Immediately when they sat down; they were directed by a nurse where he had to undergo a series of test and procedures. He cried in pain to what they told him.

“We believe there is a baby bat inside of your ear,” replied the nurse. The lost boy was frantic with fear and didn’t know what to think. The hysteria of him ever being normal again or the same was now forgotten.

How could he ever return home or school for that matter? The lost boy could just see it now and hear the baby bat crying. “Mommy, mommy. Milk, milk. Out out!” It wouldn’t be a play pin for the lost boy to have it in his head sucking his brains out.

The doctor had just entered the room. He did a number of tests and asked

questions for the lost boy. The lost boy was getting agitated because the doctors were all the same. The doctor didn’t know what kind of pain he was in and it was only escalating.

“There is definitely something in your ear, “answered the doctor.

“You think? I don’t care what it is all I know is that it’s in my ear and it’s got to go!” exclaimed the lost boy as the doctor gave him a surprised look.

The doctor nodded understanding the young man’s pain. He went to get a physician’s water dropper, the king sized. To end the pain and misery of his patient he would have to get in deep through the ear canal. The lost boy felt the fluttering and chewing and knew he did not want to spend the rest of his life like this.

“Do it, “demanded the lost boy.

The doctor applied the water dropper into his each and with a slight pain of the water pressure he felt no more fluttering or chewing. What ever it was that slumbered in his ear was dead now.

“We got it,” began the doctor. The lost boy looked to see it with his own eyes and could not believe it. “Well, I’ll be dammed it’s a water bug!”

The Insect Behind My Eye

A goofy short story written from high school.