Summer Fun

Splatt! "Got him!" yelled my cousin Kenneth. There on the table lay a little wriggling body, making a mighty effort to right itself. Before Kenneth could attack it again, it flew into the air and escaped. "Nuts," muttered Kenneth, drawing a frown from our Grandpa, who took a dim view of slang.
Splatt! This time it was Grandpa, and his fly bit the dust. There was no question about this fly. It was flattened and splattered onto the table top and would move no more. Grandpa reached out, took it by a wing, and deposited it onto a piece of newspaper lying on the table. He was keeping score and his pile of flies was growing steadily.
Kenneth and Grandpa were in competition, and though Kenneth was pretty good, he really was no match for Grandpa, who was a master. First of all, Grandpa had the bigger fly swatter, and Kenneth was hampered by the necessity of keeping an eye on Grandpa to make sure he didn't filch any of Kenneth's dead flies. Grandpa could talk and swat, listen to the radio and swat, and seemingly doze off and swat. If he ever missed, I don't know about it.
I used to watch these exterminators and wonder how they did it. I never got a fly. One day Grandpa let me take his cherished swatter and try, but I missed by a mile.
"You are swatting ahead of the fly," Grandpa told me. "When they fly, they spring backwards, so you have to swat behind them. Try again."
I tried, and tried again, but no little corpses littered the table. I thought I got one once, but though I looked on the floor, I never found it. Reluctantly, I gave Grandpa back his swatter and in quick order he had downed three more. He was good!
At the end of the day, when they tallied up the score, Grandpa always won. As well he should have. That was his main occupation, since he was retired and lived off a small pension. One day in a moment of recklessness, I asked Grandpa "Is that all you do, just swat flies?" Luckily for me, Grandpa had a sense of humor, and he said with a twinkle, "That is all I do. Just swat flies." I wasn't being impertinent. I just wanted to know. I don't think he held it against me.