You'll Catch Your Death

Recently, I was reading a novel and the phrase "You'll catch your death" popped up. Now this is something that was commonly used in my household when I was a much shorter man and I'm sure most of you have heard it as well. "Come in out of the rain. You'll catch your death." was one that popped up more often than not. Well, as I read, my mind went wandering off on some obscure tangent as it is wont to do.

I'll catch my death? Is death some ball flung though the rain that I can reach out and snatch from the sky. That's a peculiar image isn't it? A dirty, soaking wet kid standing in the rain, who thrusts his arm out and plucks a hurling death from the sky. What would a death ball resemble? Would it be a miniature version of the bowling ball from Mystery Men? A skull encased in a transparent ball, staring out through a faintly hued sphere. Could you stare into that ball and see what your future demise will be like? Would you want to? Would it sting your fingers as you gripped it, or lie dull and dormant in your grasp?

What would you do with your death if you had possession of it? The possibilities are endless. By plucking that ripe fruit, could you stop the inevitable momentum to your ending. Would it be possible to lock your death away in a drawer and live forever...or at least until you got tired of the living? A dusty old ball of death, rolling around in a curio box, peering out through a keyhole and quietly calling your name. It would be a means of indefinitely extending your life that no one has yet stumbled upon. What incredible possibilities are opened once your death is secured away!

Is it more of a fishing expression? Would I be able to bait a line and patiently wait for death to take a tentative nibble, yanking back on the line and reeling in my demise before it has a chance to escape? Where would I throw my line? Could we slowly unstitch the fabric of reality, making a small enough opening to squeeze our tackle through? What would happen if we pulled that death through into our world?

There's so much more that I could write on this and so many questions that come to my mind, but in the interest of brevity, I'll stop here. I may revisit it later though, seems like there's a story in there. If I wrote stories that is.