In the third speech, the strange gesture was used by a nice, well dressed young man showing the action was not a gender thing. As his waving action took place close to his head I finally concluded it was heel flies. Though invisible, the little insect has a big bite. My wife, Ruth, attracts heel flies at every picnic and each time we go walking in warm weather. Like cattle who switch their tails and run, Ruth goes to waving her hands at the sides of her head where they raise itchy bumps in her hairline.
Cattle get grubs from the bites.
So far Ruth has missed the grubs. Anyway, I was proud to have solved the riddle. Last week it happened again. She went to laughing and explained by whisper that the man was making imaginary quotation marks in the air, accenting something he had said. Well, I thought on this explanation for awhile.