"I'm leaving," Mike called out to his older sister Liz who was in charge while his mom was out.
"Bring me back a surprise!" she called back jokingly.
"Dead or alive?" he teased back.
"Dead, or I'd have to kill it," she said.
Sometimes they were so weird. So we set off for the blacktop where I embarrassingly fell a number of times but was able to hit the ball without looking too much like a fool. Na, I'm pretty sure I looked like an idiot by the amused grin on Mike's face. But it was all worth it when I found a nickle on the ground. Silly, I know, but it trumped the chewed up pen cap Mike had picked up for Liz's souvenir.
On the way back to his house, however, there were two little girls with what looked like a lemonade stand. But they weren't selling lemonade. They were selling ladybugs for 5 cents each! How cute! Mike handed one of the girls the nickle and he delicately carried the creature back home to Liz.
"I thought I said I wanted it dead?" she said when she saw what Mike had brought her. "But that's okay. It's the thought that counts." She smiled as the little ladybug crawled on her arm before flying away. Don't ladybugs always make girls happy?
* * *
It was springtime, only a few weeks later, and I was in the apricot tree picking fruit. There were always lots of ladybugs on apricots, and my mind wandered back to the time the girls were selling ladybugs on the street corner. I went to the garage and dug through our stash of boxes until I found one of those little ring boxes. I plucked a bunch of the ladybugs off the fruit and closed them up in the little box. I didn't want them to die, so I went directly over to Mike's house. When he opened up the box, they all started to crawl out, but he managed to get most of them back in before they flew away. I don't remember if he thought they were for Liz or if he got my joke.
* * *
It was the spring again a year later. I was trying to avoid being stuck between Mike and his girlfriend, and it had been about a month since I'd even spoken to him. Alex tended to wait for me by the back gate of the high school just so he could walk with me for 5 minutes before we came to his house where we parted. I had said goodbye to him and was walking alone up the street for less than 2 minutes when I heard a "hello" at my side and jumped. I don't know how he did it, but Mike used to catch up to me so silently that when he joined me, it was like he'd just appeared out of thin air.
"Are you going to the Spring Fling?" he asked me.
"I wasn't planning on it," I replied. Crap, he wasn't going to ask me to it, was he? I don't think I could say no, but I certainly don't think I could actually go with him. Please say you are going with Nikki.
"Are you?" I asked to be polite.
"Me?" he asked. "You know I don't dance."
Silence. I never knew what to say to him anymore. And he was never much for words.
"Stop a sec," he said.
"What?" I asked, stopping as he ordered. This is weird. Why was he walking with me anyway?
"You have a bug in your hair." My body went rigid. Ever since that morning in 7th grade when a bee got stuck in my hair during an outdoor assembly, I was scared of bugs getting stuck in my hair. Not that I ever told anyone this, but it seemed like it happened a lot. Maybe I should start using a different kind of shampoo.
But when he plucked the critter from my locks, he showed me a ladybug! As it flew away, I saw him smile. My heart flip-flopped. Ugh! I hate that he could still have that affect on me! Nothing more was said and we walked in comfortable silence until he saw me to my door.
"Have fun at the dance," he said.
"I didn't say I was going."
"You should. I know you like to dance." He didn't ask me to the dance, thank goodness. I didn't know why he even brought it up. It turned out that Nikki had wanted him to take her, even though she wasn't 16 yet. Her parents made exceptions for school dances, but his parents wouldn't let him take a 15-year-old, especially that one.
* * *
I'd been fighting aphids since I started trying to grow a garden. Nothing was working. I was told to buy ladybugs because they were a natural predator. So I did. I sprayed the cucumber vines with water and dumped the pretty red bugs all over the plant. I did see them doing the job for a while, but the next day, the ladybugs were nearly all gone. A couple days later, I didn't see any ladybugs at all. And the aphid population was still growing. I lost my cucumbers shortly thereafter. When people tell me now that I should buy ladybugs, I tell them they just fly away. Apparently they stay and eat the aphids in other people's gardens. But not mine.
But lately, as I work in the garden, I see a lone ladybug here or there, and I smile. Maybe ladybugs aren't so bad if I accept them on their own terms. They will come if they want to and bless me with their simple beauty and maybe get rid of a few nuisances. As long as I don't expect anything from them, they can still make me happy. But I prefer green lacewings. Their larvae is much more effective, and the adults are just as beautiful as ladybugs. They are much less showy and kind of delicate; they blend in with the background and are often overlooked. Every once in a while, I see one of them in my garden too, and I smile even more.
P.S. This is about ladybugs and my association with them. Not about Mike.
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