text: &#x200B; # Gummy Worms When I heard the news about his death, I decided to go to the nearest sweet shop down the street to buy gummy worms. It was raining outside, but I didn’t take an umbrella, nor did I wear boots. I forgot that my sneakers had holes in them, thus it was inevitable that they got soaked along with my socks. At the sweet shop, the lady asked how much gummy worms I wanted. “A lot.” I answered. “And a lot is how much?” she chuckled. “A whole pack or less?” With a straight face I asked her to show me what a whole pack looked like and how much it cost. It cost $10 dollars. It didn’t need much thinking, I took half. On my way back to the apartment, I couldn’t help but notice the earthworms that appeared on the ground and pavement. I was reminded of the time when I had a drastic fear of earthworms. I remembered having to go to classes once on a rainy day and there had been many earthworms on the pavement that day. I cried with each step I took and the earthworms I came across. The bigger the earthworm, the louder my cries. I was pained the most by those that had been stepped on and those who had half of their body squashed and the other half struggling desperately to move. But why was I afraid of earthworms, you might ask. You see, it goes way back to my childhood home which had a mild infestation of millipedes. These harmless creatures presented themselves as frequent visitors of the household, most especially the bathrooms. On one pleasant day, seemingly after taking a pleasant shower, I met with a rather unpleasant situation. I had failed to notice the abnormally large millipede the size of an adult’s middle finger but longer than the average, taking a stroll right along the entrance of the bathroom. I accidentally stepped on the other half of its body, its exoskeleton giving off a cracking sound as it broke underneath my heel, and I knew I had committed a crime destined to haunt me for as long as I lived. I didn’t have to look at the ordeal for I already knew what had occurred. I can’t say what happened next because this is where my memory begins to fail me. I can only guess that my lack of memory could be due to my losing consciousness a few seconds after the ordeal. Or perhaps I screamed out my whole essence until there was nothing left. This trauma of some sort has been with me since then and served as the foundation of my fear of not only worms or millipedes but helpless miniature creatures in general. I was afraid of accidentally killing them. I was brought back to the present upon noticing a rather big earthworm before me. As I walked over it I hoped that no one would accidentally step on him. Why did earthworms have to come out of the surface anyways? Finally, I arrived at my apartment. I sat on my work desk, turned on my PC, opened the pack of gummy worms and was ready to begin work. But on hearing the news of his death, I realized I’d lost my appetite.