The Origin of Spring Fever

The little white kitten's fur mingled with the glistening dust particles that floated and danced in beams of tranquil sunlight coming through the window of a cozy country kitchen as she stood innocently lapping at a small bowl of milk that had been placed at the base of a short footstool upon which gazing down pensively from far above loomed the tall dark figure of death. He had business to attend to on this beautiful spring day and was in no mood for this. Spring itself was enough of a setback with all its life popping up everywhere, but he still had a job to do and clearly this was a delay he could do without. Should this small kitten so much as mew in his direction the breath from it's tiny life-filled lungs would be like a heavenly hurricane that could have him sick in bed for a week or more. The old woman who he had come for earlier that morning had put way too damn much milk in that bowl. No one told him that there would be a kitten. He was caught off guard. He would have to come back at night and take the old woman in her sleep after all, but all he could do for now was wait it out.

Then without warning a gentle breeze wafted in through the window and rustled his cloak a bit, just enough to make a gentle flapping sound that caused the kitten to look upward and let out a small mew. For the next week and a half spring burst uncontrollably while the grim... no, downright cantankerous reaper was laid up recovering from a horrible case of spring fever. As a result he was never quite able to gain back the ground he had lost. Spring was always a hard time anyhow and now this had really made him decide enough is enough. So to avoid all the newborns and having to fight an uphill battle anymore he just decided to go on vacation and let life go wild for a while this time of year which is what we call spring fever. But you see kids, what we know as spring fever really originated as death's misfortune.