Flies in the Corner

We have a place in our room where the flies go. When we painted the trim in our room we forewent painting the actual window. It is a relic of what was ubiquitous throughout this house. The space between it and the storm window is an insect diorama. The flies are strung up in spider webs like popcorn and cranberries. Other insects, like small bees and spiders are dispersed throughout, but the ones in real numbers are the flies. These are all long dead, but I am not talking about these flies. I am talking about the living flies. They appear at random from nowhere anywhere in the house. They don't seem like preferential creatures, except for this one place in our room. When you walk in at night and turn the light on, from five feet away you cannot tell if there are flies in the corner or not. The corner is an auburn color, a patch of speckled darkness on the hardened lead paint. I have gotten in to bed a few times before coming to the conclusion that the corner looks too dark. I will stand up and approach the corner to find one, two, sometimes six flies clustered there. When I reach up my hand they begin to make small sideways steps in anticipation of what comes next. If I have thought it out, I will have a piece of toilet paper in my hand to smush them with, but I will not lie to you- I have killed them with my bare hands. I don't go to bed with flies in the corner.

-Alanna