Dog Days of Summer

“Germie! Germie, let’s go for a walk. I want to show you something!” His friend Nattie came running up, bubbling with excitement.

Germie shrugged, laying on the warm bed of the faraway Shoulder Blade Forest trying not to hear Nat as she rattled on nonsensically. He liked her plenty fine, but she had a tendency to talk constantly and with much dramatical affect.

“I swear our world is flat! I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Nattie rambled on, hardly caring that Germie was barely awake and hardly paying attention. “Went right up to the edge and it just ends.”

“Just ends, huh?” Germie yawned, stretching out on the warm soft ground. That’s why he liked this area so much. The forest was sparser, and sunlight broke through the canopy. 

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“That’s what I’m saying. Just ends!” She grimaced with the revelation, stomping one of her feet for emphasis.

“And you’ve seen it?” Germie questioned with more than a hint of suspicion, knowing it was her nature to exaggerate. 

“Yep. Went right up to the edge myself,” she claimed. “Drops right off into . . . well, nothingness.”

“Doesn’t make much sense to me.” Germie nestled deeper into the warm ground. He really just wanted to snuggle with the forest.

“Doesn’t make sense to you? What doesn’t make sense?”  

“Well, I’ve travelled all over the world and it’s all lush thick forest,” Germie yawned again, starting to lose interest once more.” So, if it just drops off, what happens to the trees?”  

“What do you mean what happens to the trees?”

“What happens to them?” he asked again. “Where do they all go?”

“Well, that’s the amazing part,” Nattie stared at her companion, sure that he wasn’t going to believe her. “The world falls straight down, and the trees turn and follow the drop off!”

“Oh, come on Nat, what are you talking about? This is pure nonsense. I just want to enjoy the light coming through this open patch here. Can’t you just lay down with me and enjoy the ‘dog days’ of summer?”

“Not when the world just drops off. Who could take a nap knowing a thing like that?” she frowned.

“Me,” Germie grumbled.

“I’m telling you the truth, Germie.” Nattie was quite frustrated with her lazy partner. “I just looked right over the edge and could see the trees growing sideways all the way down!”  

“Down to where?” he whispered, barely conscious now.

“Well, that’s the mystery, isn’t it? What is down there?” Nat was the one whispering now, only hers was for dramatic purpose.

“Complete nonsense,” Germie retorted. “We should just ask Fester and Itchy what they think.”  

“Can’t, Germie. They’ve disappeared,” Nattie revealed.

“Disappeared? Like all the others?” Germie sat up, much more concerned now, the sleep slipping from his mind as easily as words rolled from Nat’s mouth.  “Where’s everyone going? First Burr, Snipe, and Nit. Now Fester and Itchy. This makes no sense.”

The news upset Germie immensely. Fester, Itchy, Burr, Snipe, and Nit had all been part of their gang, The Scratch. They had all grown up in Siphonaptera together and had shared many adventures. Now only Nat and he were left.

“I think they have all fallen off the edge, Germie,” his worried friend said in a subdued voice. 

“Stop with the flat world stuff Nattie, we have a real problem here.” The agitated Germie scratched his head. “Our friends are all missing.”

“To be quite honest, I can do without Snipe and Nit. Always playing pranks and eating the eggs. Good riddance, I say.” Nat frowned.

“This is serious! Stop thinking about yourself and let’s go look for our friends.”

“Oh, look who’s all awake and excited now, wanting to go run all about. Well, don’t go blaming me when you fall off the edge of the world,” Nattie warned in her most annoying tone.

The ground about them began to move and shake. The forest had been very unstable for a long time. They believed it had something to do with the large mountain to the north. Snout Mountain had been barking and belching out noises for as long as they could remember and seemed as if it were about to come crashing down at any time.      

“Oh no, we can’t worry about that now!” Germie jumped up while the ground began to rumble and Snout Mountain sounded off noisily. “The sky people are placing another wall around the mountain!”  

“We have to head for the lands to the south!” Nattie shouted, moving out rather quickly.

The two of them scrambled away from Snout Mountain fleeing in terror. This seemed like it might be the big one. For some reason, the sky people didn’t want them up on the mountain. Probably because it was so terrifying and deadly.

Every time a wall appeared, the mountain seemed agitated and grew angry. It spewed out toxins that could kill them. So many had been lost in this manner, writhing in anguish as the poison consumed them.

Germie and Nattie scurried as fast as they could to the southlands, heading for the relative safety of Tailandia, the trembling ground following them as they went. They had to stay ahead of the deadly chemicals that chased them south.

It took them some time to reach the fertile, heavily forested peninsula of Tailandia. It was one of the smaller regions of their world that ran as far south as they had ever been. It had a tendency to shake and move as much as the other regions, if not more, but was a safe distance from the noisy mountain and deadly chemicals that it spewed forth.

“I don’t understand why all this is happening,” Nattie said, trembling as she started crying.

“I don’t think it does us any good to try and overthink things, Nat.” Germie tried to comfort his distraught friend. “It’s our job to just try and survive for as long as we can. A lot of unknown and unseen forces in this world will try to kill us, but our primary concern is to survive.”

“But how do we do that?” she sniffed.

“Like we always do. By running, jumping, and hiding.” Germie laughed.

“Yes, we’re very good at that.” She gave him a weak smile.

“Now, that’s my girl. Hey, I know what will make you happy. Let’s do what we do best. Feed!”

The two weary friends dug deep into the earth and began sucking the refreshing life-giving fluid from it. It wasn’t easy being fleas, but at least they ate well.