Sunday, July 03, 2005

Return visitor

That damn nasty scorpion returned a couple days ago. I had been keeping a weather eye out for it, each morning looking carefully in dark places and behind desks and furniture, but saw no trace of it. I assumed it returned from whence it came, since there is probably nothing for it to eat in my office. ( I don’t know what those things eat, but unless it’s dust bunnies, they’ll find nothing edible on my floor.)

A soldier came in to see me and as I swung my door shut, there it was in the corner behind the door. It startled me, but as I looked at it, it appeared a bit puny. Its tail stretched out flaccidly behind it, and its pinchers weren’t extended out front. I left it alone for a few hours, and after it hadn’t moved for a while, I got a stick and touched its tail. No reaction. Thank god.

I left it alone a while longer just to be sure, and at the end of the day slipped a piece of paper under it and picked it up. I slid it off into the top of a side table I have, where it currently sits, creeping me out every time I look over at it. I’m kind of waiting for a visitor to see it and be startled.

To say it has a face only a mother could love is an understatement. It does indeed have eight legs like a spider, which doesn’t add to its charm if you ask me. My girlfriend suggested (over the phone) that it laid eggs and then died. Great. Thanks for that comforting thought. Just when I figured I could let my guard down.

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