Edwin The Mosquito

Read to me riddles and read to me rhymes

Read to me stories of magical times

Read to me tales about castles and kings

Read to me stories of fabulous things

Read to me pirates and read to me knights

Read to me dragons and dragon-book fights

Read to me spaceships and cowboys and then

When you are finished- please read them again.

By Jane Yolen.

I love reading stories very much they give me knowledge, they give me peace. I think stories gives you ' lessons from past , understanding of presence and hope for a better future '. But the sad thing is that I can't finish them all before dying, but I can share one before dying and that's for sure. 

All the books that I have read on the tiny span of time I have read that life is the best gift of god and we all must cherish it with everything we have. But its really hard to survive in the world where the big dominates the small and in my case ....well that's a long story. To began with my name is Edwin and I am a mosquito.... Yes you heard me right. Now chill , calm down, put your hand down....I am a male mosquito meaning I don't drink blood. Yeah ! Isn't that a good news ? 

Yes , I am not the one for whom you can't sleep in peace , I am not responsible for the rashes on your arms , Its not me for whom you can't wear black color dress or sleeve less dress ....so we are good to talk right . No hard feelings between us....right ? 

Now , you must be thinking if I don't do any of the above things than why am I here ?. Well , today I didn't came to explain our importance in the society or hard work we do....although our admin ( the female mosquito who leads the group. As in male mosquitoes life span is small we make female mosquito our admin and than she leads the group ) would love me to talk about it but let's not bore you with my boring lectures and come to the point. 

Today , I am here to share my love story with you.....did I just hear a laughter ?. Well, I can't really feel bad on the fact that you found the love story of a mosquito funny......trust me the feeling is mutual but without any hard feelings let get forward. 

We males live less than the woman's but we don't mind , as ' R. Tagore ' said ' The butterfly counts not months but moments and has enough time ' , we live each moment and time becomes enough for us. After adulthood we males survive for three or four days but the female mosquitoes live even for month sometimes. 

 So, the search for another male for the female is not unnatural... that is also if they can survive till the death of her first husband. But for the time being we are together, the love that we share together...... that moment is magical for us. In our world love has whole other meaning and I hope with my story you will known what I mean by that. 

You must be thinking why I want to share my story ? , well than let me tell you that as a male mosquito you all know , I wouldn't live more than three or four days..and with our wide population , me dying silently without the world knowing is a common thing. That's what was suppose to happen ....but I don't agree with that. I wanted to leave something which will remind the world about ' Edwin the mosquito '. I thought of many things but than read the sonnet of William Shakespeare's ' Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?' and the last two lines gave me the idea of telling you about my story. The last lines are : 

  " So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. " 

In the sonnet William Shakespeare's told that as long as their will eyes to read his friend will live in this earth irrespective to time.... and that gave me the idea to write my story so that when I will be no more around , my story will remind the world about me....through this lines I will live forever , my story will live forever. 

So without any further lecture let's start my story. And please before I began let me tell you something , if my story bores you than I am sorry but if you like my story ...please let me known verbally , don't CLAP...that sound gives me anxiety..... not a very pleasent sound for us I can tell you that. 

So , my mum layed eggs near an house drain and than left us hundred brothers and sisters to our faith. It was not her fault , she probably got smacked somewhere and couldn't come back. Out of 100 percent , 90% of us hatch from eggs without knowing our mum... So that's the standard excuse that we use to calm ourselves that she is no more and Dad well that fellow expires by the time of egg hatching.

Now if you ask me how many brothes and exactly how many sisters were their... than I must say I don't know but I know we were total hundred in number. As , the number is huge bonding is not very strong but a sense of family was still present within us.....and that keeps us united. We grow up and stay together and vote one as our admin  (female ofcourse ) who rules and decides for the group. Admin looks for safe place and we stick together for rest of our lives . But my life changed completely after one incident. 

 I remember as kids ( in our case larva ) One day we were playing when a sharp sweet substance took over the water. Slowly slowly it was hard to breath , their was a huge burning sensation in my body. My sister Shelly and I went deep in water and passed out , when we came in consciousness we swimed up and saw dead bodies of our siblings , everyone expect us died. We cried for hours for our family but at the end of the day it was just me and Shelly. 

We stayed their for more four days but never daring to be too near to the surface. we lived mostly underwater. After five days after hatching we turned into fine adult mosquitoes. I turned into an adult male mosquito with black and white strips on my body , fine pin and two beautiful wings.

 Now , I know my wings are not as majestic as wings of birds , nor they are beautiful like butterflies wings...but they have the best music ever. I know poets wouldn't write poem on it ......well not exactly not writing some have written like D.H Laurence has written a poem and others did to but all saying us Cunning , disturbing , irritating never showing the brighter side  ....but I must say I am very proud of my wing song.

so me and my sister went to find a group where we can stay in peace. We were supposed to build our own and if would have happenec than I am sure my sister shelly would have been the admin ,for she is smart , beautiful and talented....but since our whole family died we had to look for another group. And soon we found a group called ' Asian Tigers ' run by Admin Rosa.usually other groups doesn't allow outsiders in the group but our admin is different she allows mosquitoes who have no one to stay in her group so that even they can have a family of their own.  

Now let me tell you about some ' fly politics ' the whole flies community is governed by the butterfly queen and our recent queen is Aditi the ultimate and most beautiful queen ( I once had chance to have little conference with her and her beauty was dazzling) she doesn't rule all the flies and is regarded as queen family , and the next royal family is the bees and their recent queen is ' Buzzinea' and she gets highest respect from every fly sector , and every flower and fruits comes under their control which queen Buzzinea rented from the butterfly queen Aditi , she pay rent every month with the honey they produce. So its bit hard for use male mosquitoes who also feeds on this flowers and fruits to survive. 

But thanks to our admin she somehow managed to get some flower land from the bee queen for our consumption. We pay with our survice , we gaurd the area and warn them about any approaching danger. A squad of male mosquitoes is delivered from our group for this service. 

Well , enough forest politics let's come back to my story....the reason we are here.  We are not here to discuss politics , we are here to discuss my love story. 

As soon as we joined that group my sister got married with a guy called Mart ( a day older than me ) and got settled and I was lonely , I mean she was in the same group but she shifted in her husband's house ( a red flower ) , and I started feeling left out ( its not even her fault cause if she doesn't plan her family soon than her man can literally die before making her pregnant ) , I tried to make friends with others and got some nice friends , I talked with females and heard their stories how they invaved houses and got safely out and how close calls they were ( seriously sports that can risk your life....count me out ) I started to feel like I will remain single here forever and that's when I meet her. 

She , advicer of Admin Rosa ( second command ) and also her biological sister. She was beautiful , and the rhythms her wings made was sweeter than the honey that bees produced, she was still Mateless ( which is a huge thing for us males mosquitoes in our world ) , her swift movement, her slow flying was just beautiful. My eyes were just on her , in one split second I planned a whole life in front of my eyes with her in it . And that's the moment I decided I want her in my life , I took all the courage and went to talk with her. And the conversation went like this : 

" Hi I am Edwin , new in your group..... You are ? " I asked her. She replied which sounded like music to my ears , she said " My name is heley , I am second command of the group ....nice to meet you. " she said. " second command , wow you must be having hard time relaxing since you have so much work to do , so much pressure " I added....you will understand why right ?. " Nope , I am just a girl flying around showing people our group and telling them about the group history, the stuffs you said is handled by my sister and she is so good at it. " she said with pride in her eyes for her sister. This is my correct time to talk with her. 

" can you give me little tour of the place and tell me about its history , since I am new here I don't know much about it ? " I asked her. She thought for sometimes than told " why not . " and together we roamed in the wild. It was wonderful , we visited lovers point , royal morgue babies day and night , military base , training house and the mourning tree. She kept talking all the way and her enthusiasm made my day more lively and cheerful. Now let me explain you about the importance of these places. 

' Lovers point ' is the place where our admin looks for her mate.( I guess I don't have to tell about our life expectancies ? ) so after spending time in mourning tree our Admin goes near the lover point and there at least fifty males wait for her and among them she selects one to be her mate and that continues till our admin dies. And as for others well they just gather around to have a good times or cheat on their mates ( Just a news but Admin Rosa's mate will die soon and than we can see the ceremony of mate hunting.I heard some of them fight to be the new husband of the admin....so free entertainment.  ) 

' Mourning tree' is that tree where mates sits and cry for their ex mates. Its short of a place where we pay respect to our ancestors and pray for our loved ones soul to be free from all pain and be born in some decent form. Its not a long tree but a short and bushy one with little pink flowers which we consider as soul flower. But the place is not a good sight , you can see mates mourning in that place , mosquitoes with half broken body lying down waiting for their deaths and that's not a good sign I could tell you that. I prayed for my ancestors and my parents whom I never meet to have a good afterlife. 

' Royal Morgue ' well now here is a little story , when our Admin's parents died they were the first pair who died of old age and not from ....you know what. And their bodies are placed their ( how its still their , well don't ask me I am not a science teacher) and if any other royal families dies than their body ( if found ) is placed their too. Heley pointed at that place. 

 " one day I will sleep their with peace in my mind , going for the light. " she told in a dreamy voice but I didn't liked it. I told " If you are going to talk like that than I am leaving. " she laughed at my sentence which sounded like bells to my ear and told " why feeling bad for such thing which no one likes..? I am something they hate edwin. " she told with a sad tone , her moist eyes made me sad. I told " No one hates you , you are perfect just the way you are okay never dout that. " I told her , she did a little flip with happiness and told " okay , sorry now let's move. " she smiled and moved with enthusiasm. 

Her happy smile , her enthusiasm , her positive look towards life made me like her even more. How can anyone hate that girl ? . well , the quote of R. M. Drake is true , he said : ' and the world hated her because they couldn't understand the science that made her all that she was. ' No one understood how amazing she was and that in my view has  create misunderstanding but I think I understand her more than anyone else and that feeling made me even more happy , the feeling is heavenly. we started roaming again. 

' Babies day and night ' ( its just like the place you call hospital ) is a little pond of black healthy water where our females lays eggs , this place is made so that our community children's doesn't have to face much problem ....like I did. This place is made nicely with rotten leaves and fruits so that our babies becomes healthy and our community can grow in number. And the initiative taken by Rosa to make this place is awesome..... Really respect her for that. You can see little larvas playing and I hope they have the best life ever. Something which I didn't have growing up. 

' Military Base ' like I told you earlier for our food we have to provide soilders to the bees. Well , even we have soilders who guard our lands and save us from foreign enemies. Technically its not our land since we have to pay rent to stay but for our safety guards are working day and night. Its place for the soilders to rest , meet with family and make plans. Even bee army sometimes comes for little visits here. We have good relationship with every sector and that makes us stand out from others. 

' Training House ' its replacement of the word ' school ' of human world. Its a place where flying tests are done. Here kids are warned about the outside world danger , survival skills are taught. Females are given special training but boys they are OK with just three hour training. This place is well hidden than others as it has our future in it. As we have more enemies than you can imagine like spiders , lizards and .......never mind. 

Heley knows so many people and she even knows their names , which is a special touch which makes her more famous among them. She is having a amazing memory , once she hears your name she will never forget , even the stories you tell her she will remember and when you meet again she will call you by your name and ask about all the things you told her , making you feel special and that makes her ' THE ONE ' for everyone. We talked with some young mothers and than together left for the community hall. Its the place where we get married. 

Now you will say calm down their boy you are getting over excited. You just meet her and you want to marry her that soon.....like chill. In that case let my explain you properly my condition. I really don't have much time to waste.....you must think the chemistry must start from friendship, than knowing each other , than be in a relationship and than showing shyness and all that but we don't have time for it. If we wait for that long than we will die that's why we don't wait that long. We belive in love at first sight. You have read the poem ' To his coymisstress ' by Andrew Marvell , there was a line - 

Through the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

So waiting is not an option for us and truth to be spoken I didn't wanted to wait anymore. We got married and than we rented a rose for our stay ( since she was second command , she managed to do that ) and the moment we spend together was just heavenly. The wedding was not grand but it was special for me. The priest ( fire fly ) blessed us with pure light. And than together all mosquitoes fly around us the wedded couple and sings wedding wedding song ( you must have seen the legendary mosquitoes forming a shape of cyclone , well that's our wedding rituals). 

My sister who already gave birth to many little ones came to attended the party ( she by gods grace was alive and I think her kids will be among 10% who will known their mother , and as for their father and uncle....well they will not hatch before we vanish from the face of the earth ). Her husband vary  got bend , he doesn't have much time that I can say. Even our admin Rosa ( since I talk bit more about Rosa all the males thinks I plan to cheat on heley with Rosa but that's not true , Rosa has played a big role in my life but the much I love heley will never change for anyone ) attended the wedding . 

 After our wedding when I told heley that I have never heard a lubby before sanged to me at night and that song better than anything in the universe. Now you may think what a grown up mosquto who listens lubby before going to sleep ....well in answer to that I have never experienced love and her love has filled me with so much joy that I did every stupid thing for her. You people who has tonnes of love and that's why take it for granted will never understand my condition. Let me tell you the lyrics - 

When the sun goes down and the stars shine high

Fairies come from the dreamland nearby. 

They will sing the most beautiful song and stay 

By you whole night up to dawn. 

Sweet sleep, my darling; ahead you will have a 

Bright morning.

When the sun rises you may open your eyes,

Till then sleep, dear darling. 

And I will meet with you in the morning.

On our wedding night as we were sitting together quite cozy in our new bed. I told her " Heley today here I remember a qoute from R.M Drake it was ' I can't remember what it was like before you and I don't even know how we got here but maybe that's exactly what I needed . someone who could make me love without knowing how to fall.' " she blushed red and that made her look adorable. 

Heley told " Today on our wedding night can you please promise me something ? " she asked in her sweet voice , a voice whose request I will never refuse. " Yes heley.....I promise to fulfill your request , what is it ? " I asked her. 

" Since you are the last male of your family and you have to have babies for keeping your legacy , if anything happens to me than you will only give my sister Rosa the opportunity to help you keep up your legacy. " she told almost in a whisper. 

" Why are you talking like this........its our wedding night please don't say that. " I pleaded to her and than told " Its going to be very hard work since I can't love anyone else like I love you. Like ' william shakespeare ' wrote in the sonnet ' let me not the marraige of true minds - 

' Admit impediments , love is not love 

Which alters when its alternation finds , 

Or bends with the remover to remove. ' 

" Moreover its not you who will leave first , so should I say the same for you ? " I told her in an angry tone. I didn't like her say like that to me . 

" Edwin........." She paused for a while than continued " Its hard for me too okay. But we can't say about what future holds for us. Its just a promise , I want the legacy of Father Ardour ( soul, since none of us know about our parents we use the word  Ardour to talk about them) to go on. An entire group can't vanish like that, father will feel sad. I know you have sister Shelly but you have to contribute before you go." She explained and I think she is not wrong but the thought is painful. 

" Well , I promise you that. " I told her and we sat silently for sometimes enjoying the night. We spoke words of love or they were love just because it was her words , together we understood love , love that was just written in books and stories was wide alive in front of our eyes and the warmth that made us comfortable that feeling was divine. I felt it , I lived it , I touched love itself .....I saw the whole universe within herself. And for the first time I was satisfied , I didn't have any hard feelings for past , complain about present and only hoped about future. I was happy for the first time of my life.

You can say that life was better for the first time for me and the day Heley told me she was pregnant I was the happiest mosquto alive. I was very happy and planned so much for our future. She was very happy we always dreamed to have kids and finally our dreams were coming true. The feeling of being a parent is amazing , I can remember a hindi song that I heard once. The name of the Hindi song is ' pyar hua ikrar hua , pyaar se phir kiu darta hai dil ' ( Its like , we loved and even confessed than why our heart is still scared of love ? ) . 

Raato daso dishaao se, kahegi apani kahaaniyaan

Prit hamaare pyaar ki, doharaaegi javaaniyaan

Mai na rahugi, tum na rahoge

Phir bhi rahegi nishaaniyaan

( The song means ' Nights from all sides will talk about our love story, our love will inspire the future generation to keep faith in love , she will not out live time , neither will I but our symbol of love will remain to show our love....our childrens. ).

 But the most difficult part was for her to get blood so that she could nourish her babies. And that made us really worried. For that we had to do something which annoys you a lot. She took two hours classes for the mission and together we started our journey. I promised her that I will always be with her doesn't matter what and I am going to keep my promise. 

Looking at her going inside so focused and bravely I remembered a line that I read from ' Atticus ' it was - ' she was powerful not because she wasn't scared but because she went on so strongly despite the fear. ' yes , heley was scared for our lives , she was afraid of the unknown but for us and our children she decided to do the work and that made her more admirable in my eyes. 

We slowly entered a big house and that also quite late at night so that we could avoid any danger on the way. We were quite lucky that their was not smoke machine on in the house and that allowed us to breath freely. We after carefully thinking selected someone who was sleeping . Heley carefully dranked blood not letting the person understand and when she was done together we flew away , the relief I felt was unimaginable but she was full so can't fly like usual. We decided to sit on a tree to rest . We sat on a branch and she smiled happily. 

" Oh ! Edwin I am so glad to have you as my mate, you made my life full with happiness and love. You are a such a good hubby and I am sure I can tell my kids how wonderful of a father you would have become. " she said trailing of at the end with a sad expression on he face. 

" Hey ! don't be sad.....that's natural thing. The time I spend with you is like having a lifetime. I am satisfied with what I have .....thank you very much for everything. " I told her the truth . she smiled again and that made my heart beat. 

" Edwin I could never love anyone like I love you, if I could just stop time than I would and keep you with me forever but that's not going to happen... So I want to say me and the kids love you and we are really grateful for your love. " she told me and her words holded truth that I can tell. 

" Heley from the first day I love you , I wanted a family , love and you provided me everything , filled me with love...thank you so much. I love you... " before I could finish my sentence I heard a rattling sound of leaves and before I could react a giant lizard caught heley and dragged her by wings , heley holding her stomach tried to fly away but that thing gobbled her whole and left . That thing happened so fast that I sat their in daze for hours thinking what just happened. 

I was sitting with her thinking about our love and the next second ,she was gone.. ..gone with my dreams of becoming a father, gone with my desire to live , gone with my everything. I was the one who was supposed to die first but here she died defore me. I lost my kids and my wife just like that , sorrow hits me hard , I cried holding the wings of heley left by the lizard . 

" That thing is pure cruel. " I hard a little girl voice and as I looked up I saw a huge spider which scared me too much , I wanted to run away but she told " Don't be scared brother , we are on the same page , my name is lizzy and that lizard has killed my kids. " After saying that she started crying with lots of tears in her eyes. 

" Dear Lizzy are you crying again sweetheart ? " asked a bee. She doesn't look like she is from ' Buzzinea's group '. Yes , yes their are other groups but not as famous as ' Buzzineas group ' and that was their was ages , so anyone not from her group is not considered as from royal family. That's the only family considered as ' royal '.

 " That bad lizard has killed his wife. " said Lizzy , she continued " That lizard has tortured our Beena so much , poor thing first her home burned and her family died and now that lizard is disturbing her. " well ,  I guess we all become friends when we face the same pain. 

" We must do something about it ......that thing must be punished " said Lizzy with an angry tone making her eyes look more scary. Even I want that thing to get punished , for that thing I lost the only dream I was living every moment but how to do it ? 

A spider , one bee and a mosquito against a lizard , how on earth are we going to fight against it ? We sat down to discuss about it and after many discussion we decided to hunt her down. As decided we looked for a big hole and there Lizzy webed it nicely and put leaves in it so that , the lizard wouldn't suspect , and bee hide in a corner and I the bait started looking for the lizard. The plan was I will lure her near the hole where she will fall inside it and beena will sting her to death.

But as I went near her cave I saw her hurted husband lying with broken leg in a corner , she sitting in a spot with six little pink babies with her , she is licking them and protectively looking around , and feeding them lovingly....... that's another over protective mother. I decided not to bother her and came back to my group. 

" Edwin where is that lizard ? " asked Lizzy . " Yes, did she understood our plan and didn't follow you ? " asked Beena. I told them about what I saw and about what I felt about the situation. " she didn't think anything while killing my kids or hurting poor beena. " said Lizzy. 

" I saw her husband's bad condition. Her husband is in bad condition, her childrens are young and defenseless , She is basically afraid of everything that moves and also for her family she needs food. I think we are just in the wrong place in wrong time. " I told them and they felt silent. 

" You are right my friend. " came a hizzy voice from a tree near us. As, I was trying to locate the voice beena said " That's the wise owl of the forest. " than she raised her voice a little and told " Are you up dear Claire .....its still morning dear. " she asked with a humming tone. 

" When the nature has such wonders to show how on earth I can sleep ? I was watching you all dear and what edwin said was very true. " said the wise owl. I have read on books about wise owls but this is my first time meeting one , and getting approved by one is just magical. 

" Claire how could you so easily say to forgive that lizard ? " asked Lizzy clearly angry for how the events has turned out , I bet she was not expecting that. Even I didn't wanted to forgive that thing but I am sure heley wouldn't like if I hurt a mother who is just trying to save her kids from enemies.  

" Forgiveness is the best lesson for anyone. And for survival you yourself eat flies.....don't you ? , we all in this world is part of the food chain and its necessary for us to eat something to survive. If we start killing than we have to kill every person in the world . " said the wise owl and waited than told " we must learn the art of forgiveness, edwin you go back as you have duties to do. " she told. 

" I am so sorry lizzzy " I told her and she nodded her head with understatement and told " I understand her condition and it was me who was not careful and dropped my egg. " she told sniffing. We consoled her a bit than I told beena to follow me and with heleys wings I came back in our group. 

I looked for Rosa but didn't found her , than someone told me that she is in ' royal mourge ' as her husband just passed away. Poor Rosa has to meet with another death news , I took the wings to that ground and handed those wings to Rosa , she broke down and it was a huge mourning ceremony that day. Heleys wings are kept next to her parents and all gathered around to show respect to her. One part of my soul left me forever , I am so lonely once again. 

As , I promised my heley that if somethings happens to her than I will take Rosa's help to continuous my legacy , you must think what a bad mosquito but I from beginning told you about my time and I must keep my promise that I gave heley. In this short span of life we can't spend time on fantasies but lead a practical life and with Rosa its just our duties that we should perform , but love that I experienced , that made me wise and enlighted my soul ....that I got from heley that I will never experience again. 

 I helped beena get a new family , queen buzzinea was very happy to get her , as she was getting old and didn't have any heir she thanked me as beena has queen bee quality in her. She told as long as her community lives they will ' buzz ' my story among themselves. 

Rosa layed eggs but I can't see my kids grow , too old for that , even Rosa is getting old. But now I am not worried cause now I know that my kids will be safe they will know who their dad was , how wonderful aunt they had ( heley ) , how well disciplined mother they had and what else could I ask for ?

 I remember a quote from ' E. Org' it was " Dear Lord , I would have loved to have held my babies on my lap and tell them about you , but since I don't have the chance , would you please hold them on your lap and tell them about me. " so I request you to help my kids know about me. My story must not be a classic love story but its my story , hope I didn't bore you. With this I end my story here, thank you for listening me. I hope you get your forever love soon and led a happy life.