Daily story, May 19, 2025

The fly was still alive on the web. It beat its wings to escape, then rested a few minutes, then tried again. She could free it, and damn the spider. Or she could leave it, and damn the fly. It was best not to interfere, she thought, a rule learned from nature documentaries and from people who would never stir themselves to intervene anyway. She looked again. The spider was nowhere to be seen. At one corner, the web had fallen into soft, fluttering wisps. She gently pulled the rest away, and the fly ambled skyward. She rolled the web between her fingers until it balled up and fell to the ground, whispering you can’t catch me.