A day in the life

Carly and I returned from our bucket baths and began putting away the various supplies--shampoo in one spot, dirty clothes in basket, hang up towels on the towel nails. The evening was very dark and we moved around the room by the light of our headlamps.

Suddenly I shuddered as I felt the grippy feet of a bug hop on my arm. I flicked it off by impulse before I even saw it, then illuminated its little green body with the beam of my headlamp. Or should I say big green body.

"Whoa!" I said to Carly, "Look at this huge grasshopper!"

We peered. It must have been four inches long. Enormous.

"Oh, goodness," I said, "Look."

The grasshopper clung to our wall with his sticky feet. On the same wall in the upper corner was a shiny brown cockroach, antennae twitching. And then near the floor was a fat black spider with red spots and hairy leges.

We took it all in. All these lovely creatures we get to share our house with.

But Carly and I are not bug people.

"Which one should I get first?" I asked. I gripped my Sabbath school quarterly.

"Get the spider," replied Carly, "I hate spiders!"

I went for the spider. The "whack" of the quarterly startled the grasshopper, and it leaped, which startled Carly.

"Get the grasshopper!" she shrieked.

I went for the grasshopper. I missed. It jumped again, deeper into our room. Then we couldn't find it. We looked around our feet, squeamish, lifted up our heels and peaking around the backs of our legs.

"Okay, at least get the cockraoch," Carly said, "At least he's still there."

I nudged the cockroach to scurry down the wood wall, then smushed him on the cement floor.

"Oh, gross," we said.