A Dust-Bunny Fairy Tale

Big Mama settled in to tell the little Dust-Bunnies their favorite bedtime story. They begged to hear it even though it made them a bit scared.

"One day Uncle Albert went from our lovely home into the world beyond the legs of the bed. He told us he was just going across the room, past the wardrobe to the Kitchen Chair cousins.

The Wardrobe Dust-Bunnies were a different group altogether, they never come out. The Bed DBs were a little bolder and the Kitchen Chair DBs were positively casual.

Big Mama stayed to watch over the little ones. They were all a bit nervous and rarely ventured beyond the drapes along the edge of their bed-house.

The Dust-Bunnies had all become quite good at avoiding the big brush that sometimes (thankfully not too often) poked its way in and fossicked around the corners. Worse yet (and mercifully very rarely) was the really big, noisy, loud sucking thing it didn't even need to touch you! Aunt Thelma went that way, it was said.

They were a resilient bunch, the DBs. It didn't take them much to rebuild, so when Uncle Albert failed to return (he may have hitched a ride on a shoe, or flown out of the door altogether), Big Mama was sanguine. "Ah, well," she said, "There are always those who will wander away from our nice dark invisible corners into the world just waiting to be swept off to goodness knows where.”

It was also true that it didn't take long to repopulate the DB's world. All you needed was some hair, lint, flakes of dead skin, maybe a spider web, a bit of light rubbish and a lot of airborne particles. And for the brushy thing to be on holiday for a while.

Big Mama didn't approve of those who rode in from who knows where. "They're the ones with the stories and when they get together? Heavens! You can't stop them talking about all they've seen and done before they made it under the bed. Putting ideas into a respectable Dust-Bunny's head."

Big Mama always added, "Of course, too many of them in your mix and you get like Uncle Albert! Can't stay in one place! And then there's trouble." She coughed. "Those the ones live under the chair. Very little sense of danger and no common sense."

The little DBs shivered with a delighted fear. " The Kitchen Chair DBs! Tell us about them?"

Big Mama sighed. "They're too free by far. They wander out with the barest of an excuse. A little breeze," (They all shuddered - that was deadly to a Dust Bunny) "A passing pair of feet. It doesn't take much and they scatter themselves out into the world."

And at this point the Giant GranPa of them all, lurking way back in the far corner, spoke up. He'd survived for years, somehow avoiding both the brushy thing and the sucking thing.

"They's the ones what make our life dangerous," he whispered. "They draw attention to the rest of us. Selfish, that's what they are. Keep your head down and stay in the dark and we'll all be safe." He subsided into silence again.

Reaching out, Big Mama gathered the little Dust-Bunnies to her, cuddling them into one large ball - impossible to see where she ended and they began. They all began to drift backwards to the far corner and Giant GranPa, waiting for them.

Except for one stray little DB who silently detached herself from the group. Her static electrical field was weaker than the others, her sense of independence setting her apart, and she was able to drift to the outside edge of the bed.

She looked across toward the dark recess of the space beneath the wardrobe and shuddered. That was the place of no return. The Kitchen Chair, glimpsed through the open door, looked open and inviting. A little shaft of light tickled the few DBs who danced beneath it. There was no sign of Uncle Albert but she was sure he was having much more of a life than she was.

Shouldering her backpack of airborne particles and spider webs (after all, she was on the outside edge of the bed) she slipped out and across the floor. The light angling under the chair was a golden window into the world. She was willing to fly.

June 16, 2025

Image: Ritik Gupta (Unsplash)

I swept my all-uncarpeted floors today for the first time in a while and was amazed - and impressed - by the speed at which these tenacious dust bunnies convene. As I tipped them into the outdoor bin, a few escaped and flew off into the garden. Back to where they came from, sort of, it occurred to me.

And before I knew it, there was this. Live your life and fly out into the world regardless of what you’re told by those who hide under beds.