The Bats

​As a young boy during the summer evenings I would walk back home later at night, usually after eleven o'clock, from a part time job as a dishwasher. This job was about a twenty minute walk from my house. 

​I would finish my duties as the closing dishwasher and my last task was to haul out the garbage and throw it into the dumpster. From here I would be on my way home. But on this particular night a strange incident occurred just as I was tossing the garbage in the dumpster. Something circled out from behind it and fluttered by my face. I quickly ducked and covered my head. After a second or two I uncovered myself and looked around. There was nothing. I wasn't sure what it was but I thought I had spooked a small bird. 

I resumed my walking when again something flew by my face. I ducked and covered my head again. Apparently I had upset something to a great degree. I looked up at a streetlight and there was a couple of bats madly circling the light like it had hypnotic powers. The longer I watched the faster they seemed to revolve around the light. I got a little nervous because up to this point in my life I had never seen a bat in the city as I was convinced that they were only found in the country. I picked up my pace and decided to cut down an alley and get out of the open. This was a big mistake.

I hadn't taken more than a couple of steps into the alley when from the opposite end I saw him re-appear and flying my way. His flying motion wasn't straight like a bird; the bat sort of bounced as he flew, which I found terrifying because you couldn't really tell what he was going to do. I tried to anticipate his movements and at the last second as he was coming at my head I ducked. He missed again. I looked back and started to run out of the alley. I knew he was going to come in for another swoop, but I hoped to make it to the end of the alley before he did. Then just as I was almost safe I heard a, "thup, thup," in my ears. It was his wings flapping, but I had managed to escape. 

I rested for a second against a wall of a building and looked up into the night. It was dark, real dark. He could still be anywhere in that blackness. I still had a long way to get home and as I walked I developed a system of periodically ducking and checking my surroundings. For about five minutes I walked without incident and let my guard down. That's when I felt something skim the top of my hair. I screamed and started to run as fast as I could until I could run no more and fell into some grass from exhaustion. I sat there for a couple of minutes to regain my breath. Once again I continued to walk but I wasn't even halfway home yet and I knew he was somewhere out there waiting for me. 

I tried a different approach by walking down the meridian in between the traffic hoping the noise from the cars and the random lights would scare him away. It seemed to work for awhile until I had to cross the street in an intersection and that's when he attacked. I ducked, screamed and ran. I could hear people in their cars laughing at me and making smart remarks. 

Several minutes of walking passed and I was nearly home but the last stretch I had to walk was through a tight alley. He would be in the alley, somewhere. I started down the tunnel and he zipped by the back of my neck and then vanished. I decided to pull my hoodie over my head to protect myself and that's when I felt something soft and rubbery against my cheeks. Then under my hoodie something moved. That's when he bit into my scalp.