Panic in L.A.

by John

 In 1972, in a small house in the outskirts of Los Angeles, there lived a man called Robert Westwood. Just next to his house he had a little barn where he used to read. The only thing that he didn't know was that an exceptionally deadly species of bug lived in that barn. He later learned that his whole house was filled with those bugs, called magni domini. Those bugs, some fossils of which had been discovered several years earlier, were thought to have been extinct since prehistoric times.

One day Robert Westwood was sitting peacefully in his barn listening to a song by Ray Charles when he saw little black things come out of holes in the wall. He got up to check out what they were.

"Good heavens! What are these?"

Those were his last words. He was 67 years old when he uttered them.

The next morning the paper boy - who had been instructed always to bring the paper to the barn - arrived. What he saw there has never been fully understood. Robert Westwood's body had been completely eaten, except for the brain, the heart, and the eyes. The boy ran away as fast as ever he could.

Shortly after news of the discovery of this tragedy reached the local authorities, U.S.-government agents came in and set up a security perimeter around the barn, which was soon totally burned by warplanes dropping napalm bombs everywhere.

The government agents thought that they had killed all those bugs. In one sense they were right, in another... No! For what they didn't realize was that the queen bug had survived in the ashes.

So who knows? If you live in L.A, Robert Westwood's tragedy might happen to you one day.

-0-

Some questions to ponder...

1. What did Robert Westwood do for a living?
2. Besides being black, what did the bugs look like?
3. What was he reading while listening to Ray Charles?
4. What colour were Robert Westwood's eyes?
5. The brain is the best part. Why didn't the bugs eat it?
6. Which agency of the U.S. government bombed the barn?
7. How did the queen survive?
8. Why would anyone want to live in L.A. anyway?

 

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