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Javier S

Page history last edited by jsayles 13 years, 6 months ago

Cricket

Javier Sayles

 

     When I was around seven-year -old I had a small yellow and black lizard called Waffle down in Mexico. This lizard was my favorite that I had ever had; I had a tank for it, and everything for a living heaven for my lizard. My parents would do all the other necessary things needed to keep that organism alive, feed it, clean the tank, and give it water. One day my parents went out of town to a dinner party, and I was left to feed my pet its favorite meal, crickets. Tiny, spinney, ugly insects that jump, and have pincers for teeth, the worst insects in the insect kingdom, and I was left to feed them to my lizard.  The crickets came packaged in a medium sized bag full of air, cardboard for the crickets to eat, and of course the crickets. I had seen my parents feed my lizard many times; all they did was open the bag a little, and dump a couple crickets in the tank, and then close it back up so that the crickets would not get out. Well I did as I had seen; I opened the tank, made sure my lizard was not able to get out and then I started to open the bag.  What I did not know was that when taking off the string, you shouldn’t pull to tight or else the bag would explode open. I pulled it tight and as soon as yanked the string and I heard a loud pop, I closed my eyes, and looked up, and when I opened my eyes I saw twenty to thirty crickets falling on me, and I felt them hitting my skin. They were all over me, my shoulders, hanging from my shirt, in my hair, and I screamed so loud that I think I hurt my own ears. The reason why I screamed was because I had not interacted with that type of insect. I've held scorpions, caterpillars, spiders, snakes, but never any pitiful creature like the cricket, and when they suddenly got on me I thought I was going to be bitten or stung, and so as a natural instinct I screamed. While screaming, I ran across the room hitting and scraping them off me, and that night I could not sleep, the reason why I could not sleep was because I knew I would have nightmares of those little monsters on me, and as I said, I did have nightmares for weeks of that incident. Even in my dreams I could feel them on my skin and jumping around, and worst of all the way their spines were on their legs.

     Ever since that incident with those monsters I have been very aware of my surroundings.  First I started out with being paranoid that there was a cricket near me and so I would look around.  Then it became a normal thing and then I started seeing the real dangers. Since northern Mexico is very hot and humid it is home to some of the most deadly insects known. Before, I never saw that tarantula nest under our wood patio, and before I would gladly go under that patio and not even think about the tarantulas’ nest. This happened with other animals, before the incident, I would handle scorpions bare handed and now sometimes I don’t even come near them or hold them with big leather gloves, since that stinger is small but makes your universe a living hell of hurt for you.  I should have know, since I’ve been stung by two scorpions on the leg before and had to go to the emergency room.  I used to just pick up moths, caterpillars, and other insects.  I usually would pick them up on a morning run or anytime,but after that incident I have found out that moths have a powder in their wings that irritates skin, caterpillars can release acid, and bugs with bright colors are warnings for pain.  Before I went to the ocean with no care of danger. After the cricket incident I began to pay attention but ironically after that incident I was stung by multiple Portuguese Man of War jellyfish. I was rushed to the emergency rooms and treated for about a day and half, after; that irony bit me and would not let go.  After those incidents, I have been stung by the two scorpions, swarmed by bees and ants, spiders, tarantulas, and even bitten by a garden snake. It was so strange; why was I not bitten when I was careless and held these creatures with no care, and when I do start to care it all falls on my like a sudden landslide.  In a way that horrifying experience I think made me a better student, somehow being aware more made me check my grades more, and with the same paranoid of crickets I became with grades. 

     Before that incident with those little creepy crawlers I had never known how dangerous the world around me. Here in Tucson, I came to know that horrifying fact, that there were crickets everywhere, which gave me the biggest scare of my life. The scariest thing was that I could hear them in my house, when I went to where I thought it was, it sounded like it was somewhere else, and then I would go on this crazy bezerk to the point where I run around the house trying to find it and kill it, but I never could find it, and when I did I would kill it faster than the sound of when my shoe squashed it. Even in movies I would cheer for Pinocchio to kill the Jimmydie cricket. I just hate crickets so much and I want them to go extinct. Really what wild animal would benefit from their existence? Maybe the lizard, but there other insects it can eat.  Saying that I hate crickets does not mean I hate all jumping insects. For example, I will gladly catch a grasshopper; the cousin of the crickets, it’s only the crickets that scare me. I still love all of my little animals, I still have that lizard but he’s getting old and I don’t think hell make any longer than Christmas, but that’s nature and when your time comes then your time is up, unless you’re a Hindu and get reincarnated.  I love to handle all the critters such as the scorpions, I love how they walk and their physical structure, I still let spiders go around me but I keep a eye on them, I love how they move so slowly and their giant fangs, and I still letNo slither around, snakes aren’t that bad, their actually kind of cute, and I see them as part of me.       Crickets still get me very angry and very nervous when I hear them around in my house, and I still go around looking for them and trying to get rid of them. Even though that incident has scared my for the rest of this human life I had also benefitted form it believe it not. Making myself paranoid about having crickets around me has helped me see the real world, its not place for imagination or adventure, its only a dangerous serous world where if not prepared for you will fail and live a horrible life. Keep watch of your surrounding and maybe it will help you in life.

 

 

 

 

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Comments (4)

tcotter said

at 9:54 am on Sep 10, 2010

I liked the way you showed the transition between howyou were before the incitdent and after, when you fear was more apparent. It is a great story because it is out of the norm, and shows what really impacted your life.

rafeldt said

at 5:08 pm on Sep 21, 2010

i liked how you showed how you feelt before the incitdent

Jodi said

at 7:24 pm on Sep 21, 2010

I liked how in the beginning you described crickets really well, and just by that description we could tell you didn't like them. You did a great way of emphasizing how much it changed your life. Your video was funny, and I liked your choice of music.

pmaguire@stgregoryschool.org said

at 9:30 pm on Sep 21, 2010

I liked your cover art. I also liked the description of the crickets

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