One Boy’s Trouble by Joe Giordano
Knocking down a hornets’ nest wasn’t the inspiration of a Rhodes Scholar, but when Lenny Spazzolato dared me and called me scared, I went along. I called Lenny Cousin Weak Eyes because his peepers bulged like a toad. I’m Anthony. Our parents vacationed together in the Catskills at Villa Napoli Resort, a welcome week’s respite from Brooklyn’s summer heat.
***8**As we neared, the nest loomed like a paper-mâché abscess, and the hum of the critters grew with the angst in my gut. Lenny held a three-foot stick that I wished was a barge poll. At the sight of that swarming mass of stingers, I was about to question the wisdom of our endeavor when Lenny stabbed the nest, crashing it to the ground.
**8***A wall of wasps came at us like a tsunami, and we took off. I heard a gaining buzz saw when my feet tangled with Lenny’s and we both went down. Stings felt like a blowtorch pressed to my flesh. My heart pounded as we scrambled up and hurtled toward Villa Napoli’s Olympic-sized pool. The day was steaming. Our parents and every resort guest lounged in bathing suits. Lenny and I were menaced by a wave of hornets that rivaled a Biblical plague. We shouted, “Wasps,” before we flung ourselves headlong into the deep water. Guests’ heads casually rose or turned at our warning until the stinging began. Everyone, our parents, slow moving seniors, women who’d unclipped their swimsuit bras for an even tan, everyone, screamed, flew off their lounge chairs, and dove into the pool. Aqua marine churned like a white-water river.
**8***I stayed under, my skin on fire from multiple stings. Submerged, my thoughts turned to my parents’ reaction to the chaos I’d caused. I considered drowning myself, but my chest nearly burst, and I came up for air. The wasps had dissipated. My parents glared at me like I was an approaching tornado. I gulped. Lenny’s head bobbed to the surface next to me, his face stung-swollen like a boxer pounded for fifteen rounds. He beamed a gap-tooth smile.
“Wow. Wasn’t that great?”
Joe Giordano was born in Brooklyn. He and his wife Jane now live in Texas. Joe’s stories have appeared in more than one hundred magazines including The Saturday Evening Post, and Shenandoah, and his short story collection, Stories and Places I Remember is available here. His novels include, Birds of Passage, An Italian Immigrant Coming of Age Story, and the Anthony Provati thriller series: Appointment with ISIL, Drone Strike, The Art of Revenge. Visit Joe’s website at joe-giordano.com
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