Random Musings – Creepy Crawlies
I told myself I would write this down once I get access to my computer (since this story has been floating in my head for a couple of days already).
Disclaimer: The paragraphs you are about to read are true but completely random. Please do not proceed if you are not feeling the same way.
***
“I sat at the corner of my bed, dazed and bleary from the few hours of sleep I had, and waited for my brain to boot up like an old but trustworthy computer. Normally, like a real PC, this process would take about 1 minute, as bits and pieces of information fall together and are loaded onto the multi-screen capital of grey and white matter in my head, while I slowly regained consciousness and awareness of my surroundings. I stared blankly for a few more seconds, unblinking, and suddenly, something small (but not that small) darted out from underneath my bed to no man’s land (referring to the 1m by 1m area of space between the corner of my bed and the door). In a fraction of a second, my eyes focused and my brain sharpened to register the little pale yellow thing as a house lizard (scientific name: Hemidactylus frenatus), a fairly formidable reptile capable of eliciting a louder-than-necessary response from even a full-grown adult human being (scientific name: Homo sapiens). It laid on no man’s land for a second, then, perhaps sensing the pair of human eyes looking at it dangerously, fled to my bedroom door and disappeared into the space underneath the door. I hesitated, giving the lizard a slight head start, before leaping forward and opening the door, half-expecting to see the poor lizard fleeing for its life again outside. Instead, it was gone without a trace, without a sound, without a tail.”
***
I remembered I said something like this to my colleague today, as we sat eating bean-curd at the store.
“Cockroaches are marvelous creatures,” I said, sipping my smashed bean-curd, while watching an adult (how do you tell if a cockroach is an adult? By it’s size?) cockroach crawling in the crevices along the lighted pavement.
I did not wait for him to reply.
“You know why?” I continued. “They are the most successful creatures on Earth, and that’s because of several reasons.” I smiled, taking another mouthful.
“They are small; they keep low profiles of themselves; they reproduce in numbers; they can live in any conditions and best of all, they eat anything,” I explained, as we both looked at the creature scurrying from the people passing by.
“Which is why, for humans to be successful, we have to be like them. We have to keep a low profile, multiply in numbers and eat anything that comes our way.”
I thought I saw my colleague half-nodding.
***
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