Aaron and the Grasshopper

            Aaron sat on the dusty bench looking over the fence at the barrel races going on in the arena.  He was waiting for the bucking broncos, which was his favorite event, and was getting a little antsy.

            Suddenly, he spied a large grasshopper crawling along the fence in front of him.  He had never seen such a big grasshopper before.  For a moment he simply watched the grasshopper completely fascinated, and then he decided he just had to catch it.

            His first attempt to catch the grasshopper involved a dive in the grasshopper’s direction that simply sent the grasshopper hopping to a new location.  Then he decided he would have to be sneakier if he wanted to catch it.  He very carefully and very quietly stalked toward the grasshopper’s new position.  Right when he was just inches from having his hands on the grasshopper, the grasshopper leaped to a place just out of Aaron’s reach.  Frustrated, Aaron stomped the ground, but he wasn’t ready to give up the chase.

            Aaron found a stick long enough to reach where the grasshopper had landed.  The grasshopper leaped to a new spot that was in Aaron’s reach.  Aaron slowly crept up with his hands outstretched.  Right before he clasped his hands around the grasshopper, it leaped to a new position.  Aaron began to creep up to the grasshopper again.  This time when the grasshopper leaped a strong gust of wind swept through and blew the grasshopper back in Aaron’s direction.  It landed on his neck.

            Having a grasshopper in his hands was okay, but having a grasshopper on his neck was a different matter.  Aaron began to swat and twirl and bat at the air trying to get the grasshopper off of his neck.  He looked like he was having some sort of wild mad fit.  In the midst of his fit, Aaron did not realize how close to the wooden post of the fence he was until it was too late.  He smacked his face into the post busting his lip.  At that point the grasshopper leaped off of his neck and onto the fence.

            Aaron sat back on the ground and wiped the blood from his busted lip onto his sleeve.  For a moment, he just sat there stunned by the blow to his mouth.  When he looked up, the grasshopper was sitting on the fence.  Aaron swore he thought the grasshopper was taunting him.  Part of him wanted to continue the chase and show that grasshopper who was the boss.  However, the rest of him had had enough of this chase and wanted to go sit back down to wait for the bucking broncos.  He decided this chase wasn’t worth it and went back to his seat on the bench.  That grasshopper could stay on that fence for as long as it wanted as far as Aaron was concerned.  He was done.