STOP SCRATCHING

I was standing in the kitchen talking to my husband Steven when he noticed me rubbing my foot against the ankle of my other leg.

“What happened to your leg?” he asked as he pointed to a quarter size red lump on my calf.

I leaned over and began scratching the spot he was talking about. “Oh, man! I got eaten alive by mosquitoes last night when the three of us were sitting out on the deck watching the sunset!”

Our son Alex walked into the kitchen and saw me scratching. “What happened?” he asked.

“I was just telling your Dad how bad the mosquitoes were last night.”

“Really?” Alex looked over at Steven. “I didn’t get any bites. Did you?”

Steven shook his head no. “Not a one.”

I stood back up and looked at both of them. “Are you kidding me?” I looked down at my bitten feet. “I must have at least a dozen bites!”

Alex shrugged his shoulders as he opened the cabinet and took out a glass. “I wonder why they went after you and not us?” he asked as he went over to the refrigerator and filled his glass with water.

“Let’s ask Google.” I picked up my phone from the counter and began typing “why does one person get mosquito bites and others don’t.”

I clicked on the first link and scrolled down. “It says the female mosquito is attracted to people who give off more heat and sweat.” I looked at Steven and Alex who both had raised eyebrows but didn’t say a word. “I’m not a heavy sweater!” I cried.

Steven shook his head. “Nope.”

“So that’s completely wrong.” I scrolled down further. “Next it says if you’re a larger person you give off more carbon dioxide and mosquitoes love that.” I looked back at Steven and Alex who were both shaking their heads no. “Nope.” they said in unison.

“Good answer.” I grumbled.

I took a deep breath and looked at the next bullet point, “Okay now it says that it could be perfume or lotions I might be wearing.” I started to laugh. “They say if you want to be serious about not getting bit you should switch to unscented.” I laughed even harder. “That makes complete sense. I’ll switch to an unscented perfume.”

Steven nodded his head. “Lucky for me I’m wearing an unscented perfume right now.”

Alex started to laugh. “Me too.”

I was still scrolling. “Okay, here’s one I can live with.” I turned the phone around so they could both see. “It also say that it could just be my blood type.”

“See, you just have the wrong blood type.” Alex patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t you feel better now?”

I reached down to scratch another bite. “Not yet.”

“You’ve got to stop scratching!” Steven said. “It’s only going to make it worse.”

“I can’t help it!” I tried rubbing the spot instead. “It’s driving me crazy!”

Steven came over to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Maybe tonight when Alex and I go out on the porch you could watch the sunset with us from the kitchen window.”

“That doesn’t sound like much fun.” I sighed.

Alex reached over the sink and opened the window then pointed to their chairs. “See, you’d only be two feet from us.”

“Sure. I’ll just sit on the counter top with my feet in the sink and it’ll feel like I’m right there with you.” I complained.

“Hey,” Steven shrugged his shoulder. “You could always fill the sink with water and soak your bug bitten feet while you talk to us.”

Alex started to laugh as he looked at the grin on my face. “Yup! She’s in!”