Friday, October 03, 2008

Our Special Houseguest

once upon a time, the other night actually, i had just finished tucking our beautiful children into their soft, warm beds. filled with glee, i pranced down the hallway ready to spend the evening with my wonderful husband. when i got to the kitchen, i happened to glance at the corner and i was absolutely thrilled to welcome a new friend into our home. this special guest was black and about 4 inches long. at first i thought it was a small snake. i could hardly contain my excitement at the thought. on closer inspection, i saw it was not a snake, but some sort of ginormous centipede-looking creature. it had a gazillion legs. i counted. 

at first, i was truly disappointed i wasn't going to get a chance to entertain a snake for the evening, but my disappointment was quickly chased away by my newly found awe and wonder at our new friend. i was so glad he found us in our new basement home. i couldn't wait to find out how he had gotten in and where he had been crawling and for how long he'd been among us, apparently too shy and afraid to introduce himself. precious lamb.

unfortunately, he turned out to not be the best conversationalist. my disappointment returned seven fold when i discovered our new friend was no longer with us. the poor thing must have encountered some insect poison those horrid exterminators have a bad habit of leaving around our premises. the cruelty is unspeakable. 

i called my wonderful husband to come join me in the mourning process over lifeless gazillion-legged creature. we held a humble memorial service. the broom, dust pan, and trash can were kind enough to work the service into their busy schedules as well. i was touched by their tender presence. 

it wasn't until later, after the tears had finally stopped, that i realized i should have immortalized our friend in a photograph, but i was so overcome by emotion at the time i didn't think of doing him this respect. so, in honor of his memory, i researched some pictures to find his likeness.  this picture is extremely similar to our dearly departed friend, except our version had many more legs (though the claws in the front and back are extremely accurate). i named him Morty. so join with me in a moment of silence. poor Morty. we hardly knew ye. 


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