Slithering into uncharted territory

From the confines of the saturated planet the earthworms surfaced, freeing themselves from their underground world. Taking a risk to be on land only to be stranded on the wet pavement. They waited there, squirming between the mailbox and me.

The rain had abated to only a fine mist, under the cover of my overwrought umbrella, I made my escape from the building that holds me hostage Monday through Friday.

The slight incline of the parking lots blacktop to the mailbox seemed to be moving. The rain made it look like a sheet of glass, adding the worms gave it the appearance of the very beginnings of a horror movie and I, walking into the unknown, was about to become the first victim.

Someone with a vivid imagination could say the ground came alive on that rainy day. The clever worms had plans to take over the world one receptionist at a time. Turn around you fool, turn and run before the worms crawl up your legs and burrow into your skin. Yes, that thought did come to mind as I tiptoed through the gazillion worms.

While I did not want worm goop on my shoes, I also didn’t want to upset them. But most of all I didn’t want to hinder the earthworm’s progress. They had exposed themselves to the dangers of the world. The sun was bound to come out eventually, if they didn’t make it back to their muddy existence they would surely shrivel up and die, that is if a hungry bird didn’t swoop down on them first, because to a bird they were merely breakfast.

I admired the worm’s tenacity. They were breaking away from the normalcy of their lives and take a giant leap into the unknown. Some of them were going to fail in their venture, many obstacles awaited them. Yet there they were out of their comfort zone and slithering into uncharted territory.

__________________________________

This was one of my class assignments from early summer last year.