ONCE there was a little town near Athens . It was a quiet town ; nothing much ever happened . By day everyone worked , and by night everyone slept . The nights were especially quiet , even more so than in other towns . That was until there came a little fly named Cimex . He had always been terrified of the dark ever since he was born .
Every night as soon as the sun fell , “ AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH !” he would scream at the top of his little lungs and frantically fly through the town .
But after many , many months of his terrified shrieks , the town folk grew very angry at Cimex . The people were never able to get any sleep when Cimex was screaming . They tried many times before to kill him with a shoe or a brick but he was always too fast for them to catch . Eventually , they started to complain to Zeus himself .
“ Zeus , none of us can get any sleep when Cimex is screaming all night ,” one of the townspeople cried . “ Zeus , please , you have to stop Cimex ; he ’ s driving us insane !” another one begged . Zeus hated all of the constant complaining so he sent Tithonus , the god of insects , to go down to earth and stop Cimex from screaming once and for all . Tithonus spoke to Cimex , “ You have been disturbing the townspeople every night for months . You need to stop screaming throughout the town at night immediately !” “ I ’ m sorry !” cried Cimex “ I can ’ t help it . The dark is so scary with all of the spiders , bats , swallows and who knows what else !” “ Cimex , you must stop screaming . It ’ s driving the town ’ s people mad ,” replied
Tithonus .