One In A Million

I saw an image of a trapped wasp on my favourite web site recently.  One of the comments made me think of something extra ordinary that happened to me when I was a teenager...

My parents owned a restaurant and I was in the kitchen.  There was a cutting board and carving knife on the sink waiting to be washed.  On the cutting board was a fly.

I had one of those 'long shot' thoughts.  Like when you're about 10 metres from a garbage bin and holding a piece of garbage.  "Maybe I could kill the fly by chopping it with the knife."  I tried it without expecting it to work; in a single movement I clutched the knife and raised it just high enough to bring it down in a chopping motion in the direction of the fly.

To my disappointment I watched the fly take off but something unusual happened.  It didn't really 'fly'.  It was like it had been shot from a small canon and took a parabolic arc trajectory before bouncing to a halt on the bench about two metres from the cutting board.

I looked a little closer and, to my amazement, discovered it had no head.  I looked at the cutting board and there was the head.  True story.

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