The Bat I captured and Released

Today I’m Batman and Albion is my Gotham

Yesterday was just an ordinary day, nothing special happened until a bat flew into my bedroom. Because of a childhood incident I had a phobia against bats – I was petrified by them, unable to even look at one. It became public knowledge that exposure was the best and only real way to conquer phobias, the things that terrify all of us beyond any visible reason. Exposure worked for me before when I had agoraphobia which is the fear of crowds and large groups of people. Because of exposure I am no longer distressed by crowds or large groups of people. I move about my fellow Albionites without concern of others (but I’m still cautious).

So the bat flew in, my lovely wife dives under the covers and falls onto the floor – I am surprised at first and I too jump under the blanket, just for a second. Then I said Wait a minute – I’m not letting any flying rodent run me out of my home! Fear is my enemy! By then my wife was outside yelling that it was near the window – I swing my stick at it about 5 times, missing all but the last swing which sent it behind my bed where it buried itself beneath my ethernet, telephone and cable wires which run behind my bed. It made itself so small I could barely see it until I shined a light that way. It was just a tiny thing – barely 3 inches tall, its wings tucked underneath itself to make itself as small of a target as possible. “Kill it, Kill it, Kill it,” said the wife and kids behind me – But I couldn’t do it. All it was trying to do is get back outside, and the way it was shrieking I think it was just as scared of us as we were of it. I couldn’t kill it for that. I placed a plastic cup over the creature, trapping it inside. I walked down the block near open sky and I released it. It flew away, hopefully far away. I called out “Today I am Batman and Albion is my Gotham! I conquered my fear and I did it without killing! And my wife replies, “Great, you can have Alfred make dinner.”