A Fly Went Bye Bye

When my youngest daughter was five, one of her favorite books was A Fly Went By.  We would read this book over and over.  And that really has nothing to do with today's post.  Well, other than the title.

Last night after we put the girls to bed, my oldest told me my youngest was in desperate need for me to come upstairs - there was a fly in her room.  I went up to see what all the fuss was about.  I can't catch a fly, they're way too fast.  And I didn't want to squish it... anyway, she was freaking out because there was a fly on the edge of her bed.  She had a crumpled up tissue that she pressed into my hand, and told me to "get it."  Yeah, right.  Well, I figured I'd try, and then it would fly somewhere else.  It was a big old fly, one of those fat lazy ones.  Probably at the end of its life.  I grabbed at the fly with the tissue... and guess what?  I caught it!  But then what do I do with it?  I didn't want to throw it in the trash, it would crawl out and fly around the house.  I didn't want to throw it outside, I figured it would come right back in.  So I did the only logical thing I could think of... took it downstairs to flush it.

Well, when I lifted the lid, I noticed someone forgot to flush.  Gross.  Oh well, I was planning on flushing, anyway.  I threw the tissue and fly into the toilet and flushed.  But then the tissue came back up.  I figured the fly probably drowned, and was about to flush again, when I saw the fly float out of the tissue toward the surface of the water.  I couldn't imagine it would be alive, but before I got a chance to flush... it flew out of the water!  Unbelievable!  So now I had a pee soaked half drowned fly, buzzing around the bathroom.  Fortunately I had shut the door.  First the fly landed on the toilet.  I grabbed some toilet paper and made a swipe at him... but apparently his near death experience gave him a boost of adrenaline, because he was quicker than me.  Great.  Then he tried to get out of the bathroom, and landed on the door.  I was afraid it would fly out under the door, as there is a pretty big gap there.  But I was able to catch him that time, and lost no time in flushing him.  I watched carefully, and this time both the fly and toilet paper went down to their watery grave, and didn't come back up.  Although after that I was a bit nervous to use the toilet, because you never know...


When I told my children the rest of the story of what happened to the fly after I took it downstairs, my oldest said I should make this story into a children's book.  And my youngest said, "Yeah.  It could be a Little Golden Book."  Oh my.