“Nice to meet you too,” Kevin said, his eyes drifting to the Liberty Pest Control logo on Tom’s shirt. Kevin, like everyone in town, remembered the great rat infestation of downtown Turquoise, now a few years in the past. Seemingly out of nowhere, a horrible rat problem developed in the office buildings downtown. The city called on Liberty Pest Control to get rid of the rodents. For six months, a large portion of downtown was fenced off and covered with black tarps, the Liberty Pest Control logo affixed to every fence. The news reported that pest control specialists were seeking out the master nest in the sewers. One day the fences and tarps disappeared and the rat problem was over. Kevin hadn’t seen the Liberty Pest Control logo since.

“Well, have a good--” Tom stopped himself. An odd look came over his face, like he’d just eaten something sour. Tom reached in his breast pocket and pulled out a clear, plastic box. He took three giant steps across the living room and swung his arm down to the floor, slamming the box into the ground. He trapped an ant, which frantically ran up the box’s sides.

Tom slid the box along the floor, and in one smooth motion, tilted it up and snapped a lid on the open end.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” said Tom. “Don’t know how an ant got in here.”

“That’s okay, Tom,” said Jackie.

“A fire ant, even,” said Tom. “Very interesting. Well then, I’ll just leave the bill on the table.”

Tom went through the front door and closed it behind him.

“Our parents are weird,” said Jackie. “My dad saw a black widow in the garage right after we moved here, and now pest control comes once a week. I’ve told my dad we need to cancel the contract and learn to live with the spiders, but he won’t do it.”