Proofreader: Ying
A short story more thoughtful than you'd expect!
Part One
6.4
There were two female
mosquitoes who each had a thousand babies each.
The mostagonists of this
story are two of these two thousand babies.
Due to the deep friendship
between the two mothers, the eggs of these two mosquitoes ended up side by side.
The small eggs housed two
tiny lives, two sets of breath and beat.
They were still asleep.
It grew dark, and one egg
suddenly showed signs of movement.
The little guy inside
stretched for the sky.
He said, “Mom.” It was the
first word he spoke in this world.
But little did the
mosquito know, his mother had already died under the palm of a human.
Humans had their human
sorrows, and this was nothing but the tiny sorrows of a mosquito.
Then, the egg beside it
began to move as well. The slight wobble was not visible to anybody, after all
he was simply too small.
He said, “Mom?” This was
his first word and his response to him in their very first conversation.
This is the beginning of
our story. June 4th, 2006.
Mosquito A greeted,
“Hi…are you like me?”
Mosquito B replied,
“Yeah…we’re the same.”
They were the same, living
in a small house floating on water.
Mosquito A said, “How
nice…we’re the same!”
Mosquito B replied,
“Yeah…what’s your name?”
“Name? What’s that?”
“Erm…it’s what you use to
call somesquito. Didn’t your mom tell you?”
“Huh? I don’t know.”
Mosquito A did not have a
high IQ.
Mosquito B said, “Then
I’ll call you Milk Monster.”
Mosquito A asked, puzzled,
“Milk Monster? What?”
“It’s a kind of monster,
duh! Since your IQ is too low, you don’t count as a mosquito; you’re a little
monster,” Mosquito B explained seriously. Then he thought of something. “Wait,
have you seen a monster before?”
Mosquito A said
dejectedly, “I haven’t…I have never gone outside…”
“You idiot! I haven’t
either. We’re still inside the egg! Seriously, why hasn’t your mom done any
prenatal education?”
“Prenatal edu…what?”
“Okay, okay. You’re Milk
Monster from now on, ya hear me?”
“Oh…what about you?”
“Call me Watermelon.”
“Waterme…what?”
“Good heavens, you are one
stupid mosquito! Go to sleep!”
Thus, the slight ripples
on the water gradually disappeared.
The silence was a bit
frightening.
Little Milk Monster began
to wonder, Where is my mom? And why
didn’t she give me prenatal education?
6.5
It was always harder to
fall asleep thinking about your mom than counting mosquitoes. Thus, the next
day, Milk Monster was still drowsy when Watermelon gave a bright and cheery
morning call.
Watermelon shouted, “Milk
Monster! Milk Monster, Milk Monster!”
Milk Monster mumbled,
“Prenatal…why didn’t I get…”
Watermelon spat in
frustration, “Birdbrain…”
By the time Milk Monster
woke up, Watermelon was about to take his afternoon nap.
“He…He…”
“Hey my ass! I’m
Watermelon! I guess mosquitoes without prenatal education really do turn out
retarded…”
“I actually wanted to say hee
hee…”
…
More silence…
“Watermelon, are you
hungry?”
“You know what hungry means?”
“No duh! I’m a mosquito,
after all!”
The loud exclamation
scared Watermelon so much that he shrunk back into a corner in his egg.
And more silence…
“Watermelon, I’m hungry…”
“Even then you can’t go
out. It’s only the 5th today!”
“Then when can I go out?”
“Erm, let me think… Born
on the 4th…5th, 6th, 7th…I think we
can leave on the 7th.”
“We have to wait that
long? I’m going to starve to death before I get out.”
“Were you a cow in your
past life? But even cows ruminate. You’re so weak against hunger…hopeless…”
“Rumina…what?”
“It means throwing up what
you ate and then eating that stuff again.”
A strange feeling stopped
Milk Monster from speaking – he must have felt sick.
Thus, there was another
long silence.
“Watermelon.”
“What?”
“Say, what’s the first
thing we should do when we get out?”
“Take a wee-wee.”
“No, let’s have a fight.”
“Huh?!”
“Let’s have a fight.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like
you.”
“Erm…if you insist.”
This was their first agreement
in this lifetime.
How much change can occur
in the hearts of two mosquitoes?”
Only the floating algae
knew that there were two indistinct voices in that night.
“Watermelon?”
…
No response.
“Are you there,
Watermelon?”
…
“Watermelon?!”
This little mosquito felt
fear for the first time.
Then came a tiny disturbance.
That stupid mosquito was trying to get out and find Watermelon.
“I’m here. What’s the
fuss?”
The voice put Milk Monster
at ease. He began calling unknowingly, “Mom…”
“Why aren’t you asleep?”
asked Watermelon in a tired voice. “You don’t think you can get out sooner if
you don’t sleep, do you?” He yawned.
“Watermelon…what were you
doing just now? Why did you ignore me?”
“I was thinking.”
“About what?”
“You, of course.”
…
Milk Monster experienced
yet another strange feeling. What could it be?
He only said in that
stupid voice of his, “Oh, hee hee.”
Watermelon ignored him and
replied rudely, “Birdbrain.”
He turned to the other
side and went to sleep.
6.6
The morning of June 6th,
the trees reached for the sky and the stream trickled along merrily.
The tranquility of the
water was stripped by a breeze. Floating along in the microlayer were the eggs
of the mother mosquitoes.
Milk Monster awoke from a
wonderful sleep, and he wondered, When
can I get out?
Then he discovered.
Watermelon was missing.
Out of the thousands of
eggs, it didn’t matter to him if one or two or even hundreds went missing.
But Watermelon was
missing. His Watermelon.
He couldn’t move as he
wished and could only shout with all his might, “Watermelon! Where are you?
Watermelon!”
From sunrise until dusk he
shouted.
He was only a mosquito. A
mosquito who hadn’t hatched yet.
So he made an extraordinary
decision.
He decided to hatch.
This was the first thing
he did for him and the thing that changed his life.
So Milk Monster tried his
best to be hatched.
It hurt. After all it
wasn’t time yet.
He didn’t understand why
he had to do this. He just writhed and strove to be hatched.
Eventually he became a
wriggler.
Racked with pain, he
consoled himself, “I’m just a bit early, that’s all.”
After a while, he could
finally move through the water, so without hesitation he began his search.
It was close to midnight,
and the air temperature had dropped significantly. Milk Monster felt half cold
and half warm at the surface of the water.
6.7
By the time he found
Watermelon, the eastern horizon had lightened. Down to his last breath but
glad, he gazed at the familiar egg and the little silhouette curled in slumber.
He didn’t wake him, only flanking the translucent egg and falling asleep
contently.
The warm sunlight fell on
Milk Monster, and he dreamt he and Watermelon turned into big mosquitoes and
flew and flew and flew…
“Who the hell?!”
Milk Monster was roused by
Watermelon’s voice.
He said, “It’s me,
Watermelon.”
“Milk Monster?!”
“Uh-huh!” Milk Monster was
excited.
“Oh my Mosquito! You
hatched prematurely?!”
“I…was looking for you…”
Milk Monster had nothing else to say, and he felt aggrieved.
Watermelon said, “Okay.
Okay. Don’t get hung up on it. Stay there and don’t move, you hear me?”
“Uh-huh.”
He saw that he was angry,
but he was happy.
Thus, he stuck close to
the egg that was slightly exuding warmth and remained absolutely still.
The pale light enveloped
the two translucent bodies.
It was chilly, but Milk
Monster felt warm. He was also a bit scared that Watermelon said he would be a
retard because of hatching prematurely.
Only Watermelon knew what hatching
prematurely meant.
It was about time for
Watermelon to come out. He successfully stuck out his little head and breathed
air for the first time.
“You’re so ugly.” This was
the first thing he heard after coming out.
“To hell with you. You’re ugly!” Watermelon stretched a
little before wiggling around in the water.
But Milk Monster didn’t
want to move. He was tired.
Thus, the big-hearted
Watermelon stayed in the spot and chatted with him.
“Are you hungry?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you say you were
hungry?!”
“Erm…yeah now that you
mention it…”
“You birdbrain! Eat up!”
Thus, Milk Monster ate his
first mouthful of food – unicellular algae that Watermelon fixed.
Thousands of their
siblings were hatched…it was quite a grand spectacle.
Milk Monster and
Watermelon swam to the edge of the water so as not to be separated.
Two wrigglers, perhaps the
most content wrigglers in the world, slipped into a peaceful slumber.
6.8
The morning air was fresh
and very cold.
Milk Monster snuggled
close to Watermelon.
The itchiness slowly woke
Watermelon.
He eyed the scrawny Milk
Monster and wondered, Can this kid even
become a mosquito?
…
Milk Monster realized that
Watermelon had woken. He stretched and said with his eyes closed, “Good
morning…”
“Good…good my ass. Only
the early bird gets the worm!”
“The early worm gets eaten
by the bird…”
“You’re a bird – a
birdbrain!”
…
“Watermelon.”
“Mhm?”
“What’s this tube? It’s so
weird…”
“Erm…you use it to eat,
what’s so weird about that?”
“It’s so ugly.”
“What’s not ugly about
you? It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
“You have one, too, but
it’s thicker and bigger than mine.”
“Erm…what you got there is
called malformation, got it? Birdbrain!”
“Why do you always call me
birdbrain?”
“Because you’re stupid.”
“Oh.”
Milk Monster moped around
the whole day because of that.
That night, there was a
ray of light from the far side of the water.
“Watermelon.”
Having just finished
supper, Milk Monster had nothing to do again.
“What?”
“There’s light coming from
there. Is that the sun?”
“It’s fire.”
“Fire?”
Right then and there, a
group of monstrous things flapped their way towards the light.
“Watermelon, what are
those?”
“Moths.”
“They’re gigantic…”
“No duh, you’re just a
wriggler.”
“But you are, too.”
“I don’t have as many
questions as you, you bird…” He didn’t finish.
“What are they doing?”
“Flying toward the fire.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s fire like?”
“Erm…I’ve never seen it,
but my mom said it’s like the sun.”
“The sun?”
“Yeah, the moth’s sun.”
“Oh…”
Silence.
“Then what about our sun?”
“Our sun is in the sky.”
“Oh…it’s very bright.”
“No duh.”
“I like the sun. It’s so
warm. When it’s here, I’m warm all over.”
“Really? Then it’s easy.
When we grow up into mosquitoes and learn to fly, we’ll go to the Arctic.”
“Arctic?”
“Yeah, when the summer
solstice comes, the Arctic Circle experiences constant daylight.”
“What and what? I don’t
get it.”
“Erm…it means the sun is
there the whole day.”
“Woah, awesome! When is
the summer solstice?”
“June 22nd,
approximately.”
“Perfect! We’ll be able to
fly by then.”
“Mhm, but the Arctic is
really far…”
“That’s okay. We’ll fly
and fly and fly. We’ll get there eventually.”
“Yeah…”
Stupid Milk Monster, thought Watermelon.
Ever since, Milk Monster
had something on his mind.
He wanted to go to the
Arctic and enjoy a full day of sunlight.
I wish I can grow up faster. He shifted
around and snuggled against Watermelon before slipping into sweet slumber.
6.9
June 9th, a
very provocative date.
Milk Monster thought of an
important question…
“Watermelon.”
“Mornin’.”
“Why do we have to go to
the Arctic and not to the sun directly?”
“What?!”
“See, the sun is right
above our heads. It’s so close.”
“You birdbrain!”
Watermelon couldn’t help breaking into dialect. “Whoddaya think ya are?!”
“Huh?” Milk Monster was
left very confused.
“Don’t you know the sun is
very far?” Watermelon had calmed down.
“But…”
“No buts, you dumdum.”
“Then let’s look for
fire!”
“Insane. You’re an insane
mosquito.”
“Why?”
“You try touching fire,
then,” Watermelon dared angrily. “You dumbass mosquito can’t tell right from
wrong.”
The scolding made Milk
Monster feel sad and also very lost.
“But the moths…”
“They are imbeciles!”
“Then I am, too.”
“No. No, you are not.”
But before Milk Monster
could rejoice, Watermelon added, “You’re even dumber.”
Milk Monster sighed
because he thought he was indeed stupid.
“Then…” He looked up and
said dumbly, “let’s stick to the Arctic…”
When he looked up, he saw
many of his kind flying above the water.
“Watermelon, they’ve grown
up so fast!”
“Shut up, they’re our
elders. They’ve come to lay eggs.”
“Oh? Then let’s go play
with them.”
“Shoo, shoo. You’re so
annoying.”
For some reason,
Watermelon became very short-tempered. The air grew humid. Rain was coming.
The rain came in buckets
that night. Milk Monster tossed and turned, unable to find sleep.
He called softly,
“Watermelon?”
“I’m asleep.”
“Oh…”
Thus, little Milk Monster
stared blankly up at the sky.
Where did all the stars go? he wondered.
6.10
When the sun rose, the air
was moist and just as humid as before.
Milk Monster spotted many
giant fellows, even bigger than moths, circling above the water.
Every now and then they
would dip into the water with the lowest point of their body.
Milk Monster shook
Watermelon awake. “Watermelon, Watermelon! Wake up!”
Watermelon rubbed his
eyes. His worries had indeed followed the rain.
“Look, what are they
doing?”
“Giving birth.”
“They give birth here,
too?”
“Mhm.”
“Then let’s go play with
them.”
“When they grow a little
bigger, they will eat us.”
“What?! But why…”
“Why don’t you ask why
your mom gave birth to you?”
“…”
“Some dragonflies already
laid eggs here a few days ago. Those have probably become nymphs by now.”
“Nymphs?”
“They eat wrigglers.”
Watermelon grew solemn
while Milk Monster grew dumb.
“So…do we fly away?”
“Fly away? We’re wrigglers
not mosquitoes.”
Milk Monster grew anxious.
“Then what do we do!”
“You’re that afraid of
dying?”
“Yes! Very! We haven’t gone
to the Arctic yet!”
How naive, thought Watermelon.
“Okay. Okay. Don’t fret.
I’ll take you away.”
This was the first promise
he made to him. As for their first agreement, it had long since dissipated into
the summer breeze.
Thus, two little wrigglers,
the strangest two wrigglers in the world, swam away from their birthpond.
After a whole day of
swimming, they had finally left that pond.
Milk Monster was so tired
he was about to kick the bucket.
He asked weakly,
“Watermelon?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s just the two of us
now?”
“Yeah.”
“Will it be just the two
of us from now on?”
“No, we have lots of
brothers and sisters. When we learn to fly, we’ll see them again.”
For some reason, little
Milk Monster felt depressed for the first time.
Even though he had escaped
– they had escaped.
When night fell, the
surroundings became unfamiliar and eerie.
As for Milk Monster, the
only thing he knew was Watermelon.
Thus, he snuggled even
closer to Watermelon.
Then he noticed that
Watermelon felt hot.
Milk Monster touched him,
asking, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I think…I’m molting.”
Watermelon sounded exhausted.
Not wanting to frighten
Milk Monster, he explained, “We will molt four times before becoming pupae.”
“Pupae?”
“Yeah, then we will start
to grow wings.”
But Watermelon did not
explain the nature of a pupa.
“Wow, awesome. But why
haven’t I molted?”
“You probably will soon.”
With that, Watermelon went
aside to molt.
The curious Milk Monster
wanted to watch but was scolded until he turned around.
Timid, he faced another
direction comforting himself, I’ll just
look at myself tomorrow…
But before tomorrow came,
Milk Monster had molted, too.
It felt like he was
leaving his body. He thought he had sublimed.
Of course, he didn’t know
what sublime meant.
6.13
June 13th, they
became pupae.
Milk Monster’s tiny body
was encased by clear yet sticky chrysalis, only leaving a small breathing
apparatus for oxygen.
He felt stuffy. The air
was stuffy and so was his mood.
Where was Watermelon’s chrysalis? What was he thinking about inside
there?
Watermelon was thinking
from his chrysalis, What is the birdbrain
doing? Is he hungry? Or is he thinking about useless stuff again?
That night was very quiet.
Nobody knew of the secret thoughts going on in the two pupae.
And so, the first day passed,
uneasily and depressingly.
6.14
June 14th,
sunny, clear skies, gentle breeze.
But Milk Monster and
Watermelon were still trapped in their ugly little houses.
The gentle breeze allowed
them to have one beautiful encounter – they bumped into each other.
“Ouch.”
“Yeesh, would you mind?”
Neither knew that the tiny
life form on their mind was right beside them.
Milk Monster started
fantasizing about his beauty after breaking out of the chrysalis – even though
mosquitoes were not beautiful to humans.
And Watermelon? He fell
asleep.
After night fell, Milk
Monster was disturbed by a chorus of insect calls.
He began tossing and
turning, turning and tossing, and in the end – he broke out.
When his wet body touched
the cool air, he couldn’t help but shudder.
I’m out? He could barely contain his
joy. He cracked a silly grin as he looked at his new appearance. Skinny, long
legs and tiny wing tips – he couldn’t fly yet.
Milk Monster carefully
crawled his way out and steadied himself. Stepping on the leaves floating on
the water, he found Watermelon’s chrysalis.
He poked the mysterious
thing with a skinny leg and whispered, “Water…melon…”
The chrysalis wiggled and
then let out a weird sound before finally cracking open.
Watermelon stuck out his
small head and looked at Milk Monster.
Milk Monster was beaming
wide with pearly whites (now, how would that work on mosquitoes?)
Paying no attention to
him, Watermelon squeezed out of the casing and gracefully unfolded his body.
His legs were slender and
long, and his wings were full and strong, the miniscule water droplets
reflecting the moonlight.
“Hi, man,” greeted
Watermelon.
“Hi…bug.” Milk Monster was
kind of entranced by the sight.
“Hubbub?”
“Uh…no…”
Watermelon touched Milk
Monster’s tiny head with a slender leg.
“You’re so small…” he
said.
“Erm, and you’re so big….
Why is it like this?” Milk Monster was feeling depressed for the second time.
Watermelon thought, Premature hatchlings are all like this.
He patted Milk Monster. “I
told you it’s malformation. You’ll get bigger in the future.”
But would he really? He
had no idea.
Then they watched the
stars together, speechless.
Milk Monster sighed
contently, “I’ve finally become a mosquito.”
Then he happily went to
sleep hugging Watermelon.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ayszhang: Part One! :) Let me know what you think the secret message is!
For some reason the info page didn't get posted so.... anyway it's been posted now >_<
PART TWO
The Story of Two Male Mosquitoes - English Translation by ayszhang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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