I’d Rather Face a Snake than Step on a Worm

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Fright Night.”What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

I once stepped on a worm in my bare feet.  It squished and I yelled and shivered and shook and jumped around on one foot afraid to look at the bottom of my foot or the sidewalk.  I’ve gone back indoors rather than step on worms in my path after a rain brings them creeping, crawling, slithering out of the ground.  I gagged when I was a kid and found out that people put a fishhook through their slimey little bodies and didn’t wrap them around the hook like in the cartoons. No, even as a child I wasn’t quite stupid enough to believe that the worms did the shimmy on the hook to attract the fish.

Can you imagine my horror when I discovered worm farms?  Or, when I saw a picture of a ball of worms mating?  Just typing that made my skin crawl. I almost gave up gardening when I dug a hole to plant a flower and saw a half of a worm wiggling on my spade.

So, what would it take to make me walk down a sidewalk covered with worms?  Well, my children would have to be in mortal danger with the worm walk demanded as their ransom.  I would have to be wearing a pair of Doc Marten boots with my eyes covered being led by the arms down the sidewalk.  I’d probably also need an iPod playing at top volume to distract me and avoid any squishy noises.  I would need to go through a decontamination chamber with someone removing and disposing of my boots before removing my blindfold.

And if my demands for the worm walk were not met?

Sorry, kids.

p.s.  I couldn’t insert any images … I just couldn’t.