Lady Jane La Rosa's Flies and Rats (a short story)

Lady Jane La Rosa’s Flies and Rats
Of East London, 1717 AD


The Blue Bottle fly, in Europe, was quite known to be a pest in the month of July (Worm Month), these flies had a stout (fat and heavy) nature; the adults soak up surface fluids with mop like mouthparts, they lay their eggs on dead animals, the smell of which can attract them from a distance of several kilometers. They also lay eggs on other decomposing matter and on faeces—the eggs hatch in less than a day, the young insects (larvae) have no opportunity to bury themselves in the ground, thus, they will crawl around until they find a suitable place in which to pupate.
This occurrence, takes place when the fly larvae, found in the house, the abode, nursed by dead nestling birds, or from dead rats, a dead rat will supply or provide enough food for about 4000-maggots, you don’t smell the dead rat anymore because the creeping larvae eat it, within about ten-working days, they work hard at eating hard, the larvae you will not see, they hid from the light, under carpets, and so forth, for their resurrection to adulthood, and destruction of its forthcoming environment. Oh but they do wiggle their way into the light sooner or later, after their full birth, and as a result, fly off to mate again, and the cycle of the fly, becomes endless. So you see there is a surviving connection with the flies and the rats, not a pretty picture by all means, but don’t go away, you haven’t read the good part yet.

Lady Jane La Rosa, of East London (in the year of 1717, July, the worm month, had a rat problem in her home, in her garden, and she killed the rats under her porch, that had a tunnel, that lead to her garden, which had a hole into her garden, and each day the fat headed rat would peak its head out of the whole not fearful of her one bit, and had she not been so fearful, she might have seen the big picture, not the surface issue, and she figured she’d poison it, and she did, and the whole family of rats died, and she was proud of herself, so very proud. And for her victory, she bought cakes and all kinds of good things to eat, even purchased some good beef, and breads, and she never noticed the process I just mentioned to you, about the Blue Flies (or blowflies) their eating and breeding habits, a young Londoner, of twenty-years old, and she woke one morning and there was hundreds of fat flies circling her bed, the kitchen and all over her lower apartment house, she went mad killing the flies, and the fatter they were, the slower they were; but many of these flies had picked up pathogenic micro-organisms, from rat and dog and cat dunghills, and passed their dirty feet and lips onto her every inch of the kitchen, as if they were dancing a ballet, and it was a cursed morning to say the least, she swatted and took the broom and ended up busting this and that trying to get all the flies out, or dead, not knowing the flies were transmitting intestinal infections, landing on foodstuffs, and she was not rich, nor poor, but frugal, and she tried to cover everything, and she did not throw one thing away, no, not the cakes or pies or even the breads and raw meat.
She had really no strict control of where and how she kept her cooked and raw meats, her breads and fruits, thus, everything got contaminated, and she took her meat, and washed it, but the faeces and vomit from the insects remained soaked into the meat, tainted, stained with its vomit, and she quickly cooked it, and invited her friends over to have dinner, thinking, it all was too much for one person, enough for several, and by doing so, she was forced to be more generous, more so than folks knew her to be.
In addition to her stupidly of the foodstuffs, the single, and simple young lady, overlooked that there might be breeding sites yet to clean up, or clean out, she simply had told her parents she wanted to be on her own, and this was her apartment in East London, and knew nothing about anything in this area…how proud she was though for killing those rats, and that would have to be her consolation. Nor did she clean the walls, lamps, mirrors, and so forth, and she had a half dozen families over for dinner that evening, and when they came and they ate, and they touched the walls, new flies appeared everywhere, especially around the lit lamps, and they looked at Lady Jane La Rosa, not the flies, but the folks eating the fly vomit on the meat, and bread, and so forth, and then the re-looked at the food and the flies next to the foods, and they quickly ran home and washed, and in that neighborhood, that following month, Lady Jane La Rosa died an intentional disease, and several of the neighbors died, and the cursed flies were all over, and then someone discovered a hole, and filled it with dirt, it was as simple as that.

Afterthought: It was said by many of that East London Neighborhood, Miss La Rosa confided in a few people during her illness, prior to her death, and she said, in so many words to a dear girlfriend who visited her just before she had her last breath:
‘It was as if they had very aggressive attitudes, as if there was a neurological strain, mental twist, a madness, if not insanity, in the attack on me, and perhaps I got thinking some imps, or devils, demons, you know that sort of thing got into those fat flies, and invaded my house, because I was the most vulnerable, available, I was in that neighborhood, and usable; also to show off to their cohorts how shrewd and witty they were, you know, like people do, and kids to kids for admiration, or how the robber will choose the easiest pray for his vindictive scheme, thus, he picks on the old, the feeble, single and helpless women, old women, children, those who can’t fight back. I don’t disagree the rats had something to do with it all, but for one day, such a horde showing up on your doorsteps, and then zooming by you like a bullet, attacking from all sides. It’s what they did, and had no mercy, if only I could have thought of something creative…!”


2-11-2009