DREAMS – wee little critters

Last night it happened again. I was woken up by an itch in my left nostril. Each time I exhaled something  tickled that external part of my nasal cavity. I felt around for a hair that might vibrate on the airwave, or a sliver of dried mucoid matter. Nothing. And after rubbing my nose vigorously I tried to get back to sleep… only to feel the same tickle on the third or fourth breath. 
And then of course I start telling myself that it can't be anything but a hair or a sliver of dry snot… or can it! 
If smelly armpits are caused by the excrements of minute organisms living in its pores, why could then another type of little beasts not live in the nose? One or two would take midnight stroll to watch the world beyond the nostrils… and tickle me awake.

And so I once again tried every nose-picking trick I could think of. I had just cut my nails and thus faced a bit of a problem in dislodging dry slivers. Index finger… no result! little finger, no results either… whatever and however much I tried.

Trying to sleep again. On the third exhalation the little critters continued their midnight stroll… Very fed up I snorted explosively and pressed my thumb and index on the forced-out breath…

And that is when I felt something, right there between my fingers. 

I released the pressure a bit and yes, definitely something there, something small and hard and sharp, sporting an exoskeleton most likely. And when I carefully very, carefully indeed, opened my fingers, there it was …

Lacking a macro lens on my BlackBerry recording my catch was a bit difficult, but the rendition below comes pretty close.