Bugs and Boys

Once upon a time there was a beetle. He was a nice beetle. He lived in Marysvale Utah in a nice RV park. He liked it fine, especially in the tent culdesac where it was mostly quiet. The grass was nice, the river was close by and friendly people would occasionally leave bits of food that were nice for beetles. He often heard exclamations on his size and color and especially his nice large mandibles that looked quite menacing and he could gnash them in a very alarming manner when he was feeling threatened. So far his life was going quite well and he'd grown large and fat...and, sadly, somewhat complacent.

One dewy morning after visiting the place under the picnic table for his breakfast he decided to make his presence known to the nice little girl who was packing up her tent. His shiny carapace glistened in the sun and he gnashed his mandibles in a satisfactory manner as the trundled over to meet her.
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Once upon a time there was a nice little girl named Krissy. A friendly girl with soft blond hair and sweet smile. She was busy packing up her tent when suddenly she came upon a very large and impressive beetle trundling across the grass. There were exclamations of surprise at the largeness of this fine beetle and squeals of alarm when she witnessed the gnashing mandibles. But curiosity won out over sweeping the tent and she called over her sister and aunt to view this fine specimen. A small stick was procured and the beetle was herded this way and that in order to get a better view. Eventually he was scooped up into a paper cone and deposited on the gravel so that he could be seen and filmed by Krissy's uncle. There were many exclamations at his size, both body and mandible as they herded him from side to side.

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Beetle was accustomed to being exclaimed over but this was more than he had bargained for. He gnashed his mandibles mightily and scurried from side to side trying to avoid the prodding stick. Ohhh...the humiliation of being turned belly up and having to thrash in such an unbecoming manner to right himself. He had not counted on this. Where were the shrieks of terror? When would he be left alone to find his homey-hole and peace again? Ohhh...he had a bad feeling about this but he gnashed his mandibles again and again, biting the stick and  hoping they would eventually have the desired affect. When would this end??

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Uncle was getting some good shots of the giant beetle and Auntie had brought over Nigel and Sookie to meet this fine beetle. His pinching mandibles were pinching mightily and his legs were scrambling, scrambling to try and get away. When suddenly, without a sound and without warning a giant hammer descends from nowhere and pounds the beetle three times. BAM BAM BAM!!

Yes...I hear your shocked silence.

But it was only a moment of silence for that poor beetle before eyes were raised to the beetle murderer and incredulous voices exclaimed, "SCOTTY! What did you do? You killed it!" Everyone looked down at the poor squished beetle pounded to mush on the gravel of the quiet tent culdesac. No more shiny brown carapace. No more threatening, pinching mandibles.

Why do we laugh in the face of such brutality? But we did as we looked into the eight year old eyes of a smiling little boy wielding the power of a hammer.