Happy tried to sleep but hit itching persists. He felt them crawling all over the bed. He shot out of bed and flipped on the lights to see a dozen of them crawling all over his bed.
He googled what to do and it said to sleep with the lights on. He tried. They came back in smaller amounts but now he saw them clearly and couldn’t close his eyes.
He wondered where they’d come from and knew it must’ve been some used furniture that Mummi was prone to picking up on the curb. They’re home now have no room floor to ceiling in most parts for anything else, and their balcony had become an open air storage locker.
He knew he needed to strip the house. He went outside and turned on all the house lights to a groaning Mummi and Daddi.
He went up to Mummi and inspected her arms to find a few bites.
“We have bedbugs, you’re getting bit but i’m way worse,” Happy said.
“It’s because you have sweet blood beta. It’s also why you get more mosquito bites,” Mummi said as Dadi groaned trying to fall back asleep.
“We need to strip the house,” Happy said.
Mummi begrudgingly agreed and went to his room to pull the bedding off his bed. Happy got low to inspect the mattress and found clusters of bed bug eggs.
Mummi got a garbage bag out for his sheets and started stuffing it as she grumbled about the price she’d paid for them and how much of a sale they’d been on. Happy didn’t where he’d sleep tonight but he didn’t care. He thought that maybe they’d instead come from his dad living in filth while they were gone to India. He hadn’t see the tub so dirty at any other point in his life. He came to realise how much his mom did to keep the little bare surfaces in their home clean in spite of his dad.
Mummi came back in the room with rubber gloves from Daddi’s work.
“What’s that supposed to do? They’re everywhere,” Happy said.
They finished throwing out the sheets and Happy thought of what to do next. They would have to fumigate the house, but couldn’t tell the landlord as he would see the state of their hoarder’s home and command they throw stuff out. He could throw out his mattress but who knows when he would be able to buy another one, and when would it be safe enough to bring anything new into this home and be sure the bedbugs weren’t hiding in the walls waiting to infest that as well.
This is what he thought about as he lie awake, trying to sleep in the living room next to his tossing Daddi with the bright lights on overhead.1
Footnotes
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expand on the thoughts while trying to sleep ↩