The Foolish Fly

There is nothing more annoying to Cook than that one fly. I know it is a different one each day, but she insists it is the same one. She calls it the "demon fly." It has been her adversary for this past month and, in the fact that it hinders her work, it is our adversary. Papa doesn't like his meals to be late. Tonight he commanded that she spend the next ignoring the fly.

I chuckled, but he glared at me. Let me tell you, I shut my trap real quick. When Papa means business he means business and no longer. Period. When dinner was over I volunteered to help Cook kill the fly. She was hesitant. I managed to convince her that, with patience, we could kill the annoyance.

I put a dab of honey on the counter, grabbed the fly-swatter, and waited. I could hear Cook's heavy breathing beside me. I wondered if she would have enough patience for this. It turns out she did not.
As soon as the fly landed and started to eye the honey she left out with a rolling pin and tried to smash it. The fly darted away and hovered inches from her face, mocking her.

This continued for about three hours. The haughty fly grew more and more confident and ever the more obnoxious. Cook seemed to have steam coming from her ears. I sent her off into the next room. I had the fly right where I wanted it, right there in its overbearing self-confidence.  It landed and looked at me. I waited. It buzzed toward me and buzzed back to the honey. I almost laughed. It was trying to intimidate me! I stayed still.

It soon grew bored of its game and, in its pride, it landed and began to eat from the drop of honey. Oh, foolish fly! I rushed forward, bringing the fly-swatter down. The last thing the haughty fly saw was that pile of honey. It had fallen for my trap. Patience was victorious over speed once again.

The End 

Flies are the most obnoxious antagonists ever. There are certain people who are just as obnoxious. They are arrogant, they mock us, then they fall. No one likes these people. But only the patient people can ever tolerate or defeat them.

These obnoxious antagonists can be used rather effectively in short stories. The reader knows how irritating these type of people can be and therefore they connect more with the protagonist. Not every villain in a story should be brilliant, some need to be those obnoxious people that we all struggle against.