Don't Bug Me!

We meet this couple and their daughter at a small park and invited them if they were ever in the neighborhood to drop by.  Well, to our surprise they were at our door one Saturday!  They were nice people, but they looked like they never bathed or changed clothes in awhile.  As was customary for us, when company came we took their coats and always laid them on the bed Diane and I shared.  They stayed for longer than we expected, or would have liked, and they were invited to stay for supper.  Sometime after eating they finally said good-bye, handed them the coats and were gone!!!  Several nights after this visit, I woke up with tiny bites all over my body, and they bled, so I must have been scratching at night.  After maybe a week of this my parents took me to a dermatologist to find out what was biting me.  The doctor looked at one arm and told my folks we had bed bugs.  My mom and dad looked shocked and wanted to know how to get rid of them.  That very night we all got on either side of the bed, and dad through back the covers as mom shined a flashlight on the sheets.  Yikes!!!  The bed was black with these bugs, and they are so fast, within 10 seconds they had scattered back into the mattress.  I ran out of the bedroom screaming and brushing my clothes at the thought of them all on me at night biting and drinking my blood!!!  Need I mention Diane slept in the same bed with me and did not get one bite.  The doctor said I had what was referred to as "sweet blood", which he also has and was the reason he became a dermatologist.  He had prescribed a cream for me to apply to heal the bites.  Dad had to drag the mattress outside into the pick up truck to burn down at Uncle Raymond's.  Then mom and Diane had to wipe the entire bed down with kerosene, and put coasters under the legs of the bed with kerosene in the coasters.  They treated the bed at least 2 times and at night had to check the carpet to make sure they were all gone.  When my folks were absolutely positive  they were gone, we had to but a new mattress.  Good thing we did not smoke, or my bed soaked in the kerosene would have ignited!!  Man I was so leery about sleeping in that bed or room again, but after one week I knew for sure no more bugs!  The dermatologist told my mom that I will attract  all types of bugs and insects because of my blood.  They smell it and it draws them to me, so I should be careful where I go or what I do.  The main concern would probably be bees or mosquitoes!!!  Since Diane does not have the same kind of blood, that was the reason she never got bitten.  Which just tickled her pink!!  She loved to dance around to sing "you are buggy I am not" or things along those lines.  This was just more ammo for her to use against me to try to make me feel bad.  At this time I was 10 and Di was around 16 years old.  She was a little frustrating to grow up around!!