CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 11 M y best pal has a cabin void of electricity sitting between the inland waterway and the coastline. We use it most frequently together just aer fall turns to winter, when the days are brisk and the nights require blanketing, when the red- fish and speckled trout make hay on the thickened schools of mullet minnows. e cabin's night light comes from Coleman lanterns; the heat from a wood stove. On one such night, when winter was taking firm hold, my pal slept soundly on the weathered couch in the wee morning hours surrounded by three other snoring fishermen. Cold-blooded crea- tures had found their places of hibernation in the cabin as well. e plentiful heat from the wood stove, however, rose steadily into the cabin raers, awakening all those critters that had taken winter ref- uge there. About 2 a.m., my pal woke from his deep haze to a piercing on his arm. He swatted at the pain as he sat upright in an otherwise foggy state. Focusing down to the floor, he saw a black wasp fumbling for coherency aer having been de-hibernated prematurely by the fire's heat and aer having been bludgeoned to the floor by the recipi- ent of the sting. My pal jammed his foot into a sandal and audibly crunched to death the groggy wasp that had stung his forearm. As he raised his gaze back to an even line of sight, he viewed the far wall where the stove pipe exited the cabin's main room. To his shock, he saw flame creeping slowly up the raw plywood. e cabin with four sleeping men inside was beginning to burn. My pal is a great protector today of wasps. No one is allowed to exterminate them in the cabin. He believes that he killed his very own guardian angel, sent to painfully wake him in the middle of the night and save him from a fiery death. I drove home from Raeford that night with a swollen face and neck. I bought a ten pound bag of ice at a convenience store and held it on my head as best I could all the way home, ignoring the melt running down my body onto the seat of my truck. My nature is to curse such events as that one, where perhaps I should have dis- cerned that the winter wasps would be less violent than summer ones. at said, if a single winter wasp saved four lives from a new flame, perhaps dozens of summer wasps were what it took to keep me from finding whatever was coiled up inside that wood duck box. I am happy not to know. CV My pal is a great protector today of wasps. No one is allowed to exterminate them in the cabin. He believes that he killed his very own guardian angel, sent to painfully wake him in the middle of the night and save him from a fiery death. Extra Bold Bold Medium FREE FREE Across from Best Buy and Target M-F 8a-10p | S 8a-8p | Su 10a-6p (910) 864-1500 2043 Skibo Road, Ste. 101 Fayetteville

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