The Sting

I felt a tiny sting on my arm and casually brushed at it and that’s when I saw the stinger without the bee, surging poison into me. Some witnesses later gave statements that I jumped up and down and screamed like a little girl. I don’t know how my phone dialed 911. I’m pretty sure I handled it like a man. As Huffygirl wrung out the handkerchief she used to wipe the tear…,er…sweat from my cheeks, I tried to get back to getting our gear in order. We were at the boat ramp at Cutler Reservoir near Newton and were getting ready to launch a kayak we had borrowed. I felt a little out of place as there were a bunch of fisherman with their boats and trucks and who were talking about fishin’ and fishin’ injuries and stuff. Until the bee sting of course! I jumped into the conversation by pointing out the slight swelling around the actual sting location. The guy they called “Lefty” agreed it looked pretty pathetic. It was a proud moment for me. Until a little girl carrying a stringer of fish to her dad’s truck loudly proclaimed, “You don’t scream anything like me. More like a big baby!” I decided this was a good time to slip the kayak into the water while the sound of laughter filled the air behind us…

 

We paddled quickly and efficiently through the shallow water. “I LIKE making circles”, I insisted when Bobbi sweetly asked where the heck we were going. She liked that answer and suggested that I had been working so hard that maybe I might want to take a break while she paddled for a bit. She is such a sweetheart!

This was our first time on Cutler and it was really interesting. We found the remains of what looked like the old original dam and we maneuvered through several cool channels formed by rocks and trees. Several times we saw large dark birds circling overhead that seemed to be watching us very closely. I think they saw the swelling from my bee sting and figured it was only a matter of time. Occasionally, I held my forearm under water to cool it down. Huffygirl said she appreciated me doing that ‘cause it kept us from going too fast. Once, I thought I was going into shock but it turned out I just needed to sneeze. I don’t know how my phone dialed 911. Huffygirl told me she thought my whimpering was very manly and she shooed the big scary birds away.

Huffygirl paddled us back to the boat ramp where the fishermen were looking perplexed at a pile of cash, coins and a couple of fancy lures on a tailgate. After staring at me for a full 30 seconds, then back at the pile, Lefty asked loudly, “Didn’t ANYONE bet that the buzzards WOULDN’T get him?!?” The little girl stuck out her tongue at me. After loading up our gear, my sweet companion asked if we needed to go to the emergency room. I looked at the sting which had ballooned to almost the size of a whole dime and felt faintness coming on. We heard a siren in the distance. Honestly, I don’t know how my phone dialed 911…