I’d make my journey of running into the

forest on a treasure hunt, down the trails alone with no one else around me for miles, passing by the singing birds and the loud beating wings of the rough grouse. Up and down the hills I ran alongside the pond where the muskrats swarmed and the mud was plentiful. As I stepped into the very thick mud I got my shoes all dirty in the process, yet that wouldn’t slow me down for my feet may have been heavier but it flaked off as it quickly dried.

When I found my treasure, a hornets’ or wasps nest nestled inside the trees I’d divert from the path by running into the bushes. With all my energy and power I’d make my way to my prize going through the thistles, thorns and stinging nettle. It didn’t matter if I was wearing shorts and the stinging nettle was burning my legs, my prize was too great to pass by. Once I reached the tree, like a monkey I used all the powers of my arms and legs which God gave me to climb up and with my own hands swat the nest down.

When I returned I was always upset with my mother when she refused to allow my new found pets access into our home. In a firm voice, she commanded me to place them at a safe distance from the door. They only came in after my father thoroughly smoked them. Yet afterwards, they were no longer as interesting, soon their gooiness became brittle, while their ability to repair themselves all together ceased. Once I deposited them into my collection box, they soon flaked away into nothingness. It was very disappointing.

But it wasn’t all a loss, for during the smoking process I was able to salvage several handfuls of precious hornets and wasps by placing them inside a glass jar. Wherever I went, this glass jar went with me, to and from the dinner table, when I went shopping with my mother for groceries in the small town of Tolfield, in my bed when I slept, the TV room etc.

One day I brought them for show and tell at the Rainbow Daycare Center in the big city of Edmonton while my mother worked at her Pharmacy.

I didn’t understand why so many adults were afraid for in my mind adults never seemed to be afraid of anything.

To my knowledge my pets never harmed anybody. Yet, this didn’t convince them, they made sure to tighten the jar as best as they could. Soon after, the larvae hatched in a process that mesmerized and excited many of the children. This fiasco only ceased once the jar was confiscated into a closet for the rest of the day.

This greatly upset me because my pets had been taken away but the door was locked and there was nothing which I could really do.