SLIDE!!!!!

Leroy Dung Beetle struggled to get over the large twig that lay in his path. The storm from the night before had left a lot of debris everywhere, but he could see that he was not the only one having difficulties. Conrad Beetle was also having a hard time negotiating the obstacles in his path. It didn’t help that he had a bum leg from the little episode that had happened just that morning…
It had started out to be a good day…the sun was shining and Conrad was feeling good. Only the day before he had run into an old girlfriend and they had reminisced about the old days. She was meeting him this fine morning for a quiet breakfast of aphids and to continue their conversation. Conrad was getting sweaty feelers and he felt a little twinge deep inside as he thought of the possibilities of a newly rekindled relationship.
“Ow!!” Conrad banged his knee on a rock that he hadn’t noticed while daydreaming about the past events. He stopped walking and rubbed his knee. Soon the pain subsided and he continued stumbling along, while once again thinking
Leroy waved to his cousin, but apparently Conrad was lost in thought, because he didn’t seem to notice his wave. “Oh well, I’ll probably run into him later.” When you are a bug and wander around aimlessly day after day, you usually run into someone you know on a regular basis. But Leroy wasn’t complaining because he figured it could always be worse. He had heard about some poor defenseless potato bugs being harassed down by the Gray Expanse. Seems like it was always something around here.
He continued up and over other twigs and bits of debris in search of his ultimate goal…..that of finding a chunk of dung to bug handle back to the nest. His family was proud of his ability to provide for them and he didn’t want to disappoint them. However, it was getting harder and harder to find good dung that was close to the nest. If he has to go much further afield, he may have to pack up the family and move away from all their friends. It will be hardest on the children, he sadly thought to himself.
If I would have been just a little quicker, I could have taken that guy, thought Conrad. He couldn’t help but keep running this mornings encounter over and over in his mind, thinking about what he could have said or done. How could he have known his old girlfriend had just broken up with a jealous maniac who had no qualms about putting anyone in the bug hospital that even looked at her cross eyed? Well….He couldn’t, which would explain how he had ended up on the ground with one of his legs bent up and over his back. He had gotten out of the guys grip only because the girlfriend had distracted the wild beetle long enough for him to make a break.
So now he had a bum leg, no breakfast, no prospects of a rekindled relationship, and he had to limp home over a wasteland in a bummed out mood. The day was not going well for Conrad Beetle.
As for Leroy, he had just come up against the biggest pile of dung he had ever seen in his life. It appeared to be shaped like a huge round disc and had never seen one quite like it. ‘This is going to be a job getting it back to the nest…..it’ll take a lot of trips to pack this baby out.’ he thought to himself. He climbed up onto the dung disc and started walking out to the middle so he could plan on how to cut it up. He didn’t get far before he heard a thumping noise coming up quick behind him.
He spun around and his jaw dropped as he saw a horrific sight coming towards him. It was a tremendous wall of white approaching at a high rate of speed. Before he could blink, it was upon him and driving him into the pile of dung. He could tell that he and his whole world was moving the same direction as the white wall, even though he was buried deep inside the pile. Slowly, the pile and Leroy came to a stop. It took a few minutes for him to regain his senses and to start digging up out of the pile.
“OH MAN!! LOOK AT MY SHOE!!!” Little Bobby could tell right away that his new pair of Red Ball Jets had just been broken in and broken in hard, and on his first slide of the game at that. “I was going to wear these to school tomorrow,” he said getting to his feet. “Dang it! I wish we had regular bases instead of these stupid cow pies.”
Finally reaching the top of the dung pile, Leroy got to his feet and looked around trying to get his bearings. “Hey!……this place looks kind of familiar!!” Down at the base of the dung pile he could see his wife and kids waving and running towards him. By some miracle he and the entire pile of dung had practically been delivered right to his very own doorstep. The family won’t have to move now. Little tears of joy were trickling down his cheeks as he climbed down to join his happy little family.


(The part of Conrad Beetle was played by Jose’ Cricket)