There, calmly and patiently beating the window in a hopeless attempt to escape, was the biggest mother of a hornet (or related insect) I have ever seen. It was literally four inches long and you could see every curve and outline of its segmented body from 20 feet away. Was that thing real? Was it supposed to be real? This wasn't something that actually lived and flew around my head, threatening a venom-induced death with one sideways prick. This was a prototype for a bug in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." This was something you see in a natural history museum, stuck to the wall with a huge pin behind thick glass below a sign that declares, "ARTHROPODS FROM ASIA" and makes you shrug, "So basically, it's an alien."
Stuck behind glass, he was, but dead and securely glued to the wall, he was not. This guy was alive, he was real, he was right in front of my face, and I had to tell someone. I was so excited. The nearest person was the school gardener at the bottom of the stairs. He was arranging some flowers on a small table. I ran down the stairs and practically tackled him as I pointed frantically at the window. I yelled at the nice gardener man in informal Japanese.
"LOOK! IT'S VERY BIG! IT'S VERY BIG!"
The gardener looked up, eyed the bug without interest, smiled at me politely, turned back to his flowers and said,
"Yes. It's very big."
I stood there, confused.
"BUT IT'S VERY VERY BIG!" I yelled at him again. "SO BIG! WE DON'T HAVE THOSE IN AMERICA! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE SEEN ONE OF THOSE! IT'S VERY BIG!"
This time, without looking away from his flowers, the gardener smiled and said,
"Yes. It's very big."
I looked at him, incredulous. He must have seen a million of these things before, and the excitement--had it been there in the first place--must have worn off for him a long time ago.
"We don't have those in America," I repeated dumbly, and headed out the door. I floated to the 7-11, still amazed that bugs like that could exist on the same side of the glass as I.
As you have probably gathered from previous posts, I have a morbid, delightful fascination with bugs. I can't stand them, yet I can't stop talking about them. The first picture I ever drew, ever, was of a dead cicada I found in our driveway. I could never get his wings even and I remember agonizing over drawing them the same shape. But to no avail -- one wing was round and stubby, the other long and elliptical. Mom and Dad saved the picture anyway.
A dead bug does seem like an odd subject for a little girl's first work of art. How fitting that when I first came to Japan, a cicada was the first bug I encountered. As terrifyingly loud as they can be at night, I hope they come out again to yell at me in my tatami room before I leave Japan.
2 comments:
I think you had a Yoda moment: "Stuck behind glass, he was, but dead and securely glued to the wall, he was not."
Two years ago, I drove through DC on my way from NJ to NC, and I was visiting Scott--Chris's current roommate--at his folks' house outside of DC. This was during the time of that enormous cicada infestation, and those guys were EVERYWHERE. There were three really strange occurances involving the cicadas. The first two were observations made by Scott's little brother--or as we like to call him, Stiffler's brother. Earlier that morning he took a walk out into their backyard and heard a deafening noise and, turning to its source, discovers a bush of cicadas. He could see no leaves. The second observation was that when the family dog took a crap on the family kitchen, Stiffler's brother noticed that her stool was full of cicada shells. Ew. The third observation was made by me. The following morning, I drove out of DC to get back down to NC, and on one of the highways, I drove through a big stretch of open air where tons of cicadas were just flying around. I remember driving along and seeing this one cicada from 50 feet away or so, at eye level, and the little bastard just SMACKS into my windshield and left a mark that did not wash off for at least another month. It was gross/cool.
See? You're interested by scary, deadly animals, too. I'm telling you. Sharks, snakes, insects... all of those things are fascinating.
That. Was. So. Gross!
Post a Comment