Scorpio

I mentioned in my bio that my family is my muse. The experiences I collect with them are filed and saved for a rainy day.  Every once in a while a moment stands out. For instance……

A few days ago I was driving my daughter to her friends house. A girls trip, that was ten minutes down the road. My son, Red, didn’t want to come so we left and I said I would be home soon.  As I was driving home my phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize but it was local so I answered. On the other end of a the phone was incoherent yelling, screaming and crying.  I recognized the voice right away as Red.  He was panicked. If any of you know Red you know that he is an over reactor.  Despite his panic I was a little distraught. He was calling me from a phone I didn’t recognize!  Once I got him speaking English he said that he was at his friends house.

Once I got to his friends house he was still in hysterics with his arms wrapped around himself.  I finally got him reasonably calm and this is what he told me.

MOM a SCORPION was on my NECK!!! I swatted it off and heard it hit the floor.  It chased me out of the kitchen so I ran to my friends house.

I told Red I would go home and look for the scorpion. I was home on all fours searching for a scaly black scorpion. I couldn’t find it so after ten minutes I walked back down to get Red and have him search with me. He would have nothing to do with it.  He refused to come home until I caught the scorpion.  So I called Hubby about ten times, called Red’s dad, basically called anyone I knew could help. When I walked back outside there were a few neighbors that had come over to see what all the screaming was about…. he had screamed all the way from his house to the neighbors.  Since I had the neighbors involved and they were the only help I could find we went looking for the scorpion.

We were armed with flashlights and began crawling around.  Finally, someone said, “I bet that’s it.”  I looked and there it was. It was hanging from the bottom of a kitchen chair all four inches of it. Not black and scaly but brown, winged…with antenna.  It was a praying mantis!!

I knew I had to show it to him the only other alternative would be hiring an exterminator.  So we put the praying mantis in a cup and brought it to Red.  He wouldn’t get close but watched it crawl around my arm.

I told him he could come home now and to put his shoes on.

“Mom I didn’t wear shoes.  I was being CHASED!”