#240 Dionaea Muscipula

by Jamie Henshaw

Five ninety-nine, that’s dollars and cents now, for that plant. I read about ‘em somewhere. Odd things, if you ask me. Now, I’m telling you this because nobody does ask me about this sort of thing.

Dionaea Muscipula. The name is Latin; that first part refers to one Aphrodite, who was apparently the daughter of Dione. Then that other part means something along the lines of mousetrap.

I don’t remember that, of course. It’s on a card in the dirt along with it, the plant, I mean. Then there’s the English part, what we call it, Venus—only it’s a fly trap. You’ve heard of those, right? They sit there and wait for a bug or something and then *pow*, closes right up and eats it.

So I’m sitting there, right, watching this plant. Only I’m not really expecting it to start eating things. The bugs aren’t around, winter’s just over with; I’m surprised this Venus plant is even alive it’s so cold still.

Now, I’m nobody superstitious. I don’t think anybody oughta be. I’m nobody about science either, but these Latin jobs seem to cover everything we’ve got here.

There’s this light comes right in my window, shining, misty and making me think twice about superstitious. Looking at it makes me feel spring right here inside, you know? A sprite, I looked it up later. She, I think, lands right in the middle of that thing and *pow*.

‘Least I got to see it eat. The plant, I mean.