More Centipedes

I am sitting here starting up my computer when a "baby" centipede, maybe a centimeter long in body, suddenly sprints into view on my desk, off to my left. My heart rate jumps to double its resting rate and my right hand, which is holding my young son's t-shirt, jumps out and smashes the thing. At the same time I pop out of my chair, causing it to fall over backward behind me. I stare for a few moments at the shirt, which is now on the floor under the place where the chair used to be. With a deep breath I reach down, pick it up and turn it over to view the squished remains. I take a tissue and wipe off little centipede entrails from the shirt and the desk.

Just yesterday while sitting in a small circle of chairs during our adult education hour at church, listening to the opening announcements before the first speaker, I see a dark flash whip out from under one of the chairs of a neighboring circle. My husband, sitting next to me, quickly and instinctively slaps out his left foot. I audibly suck in air and sit bolt upright. Linda A., whose chair is next to mine, but part of this neighboring circle, notices my reaction and hears me whisper, "Was that a centipede?" She reaches out, putting her hand on my shoulder in comfort and answers, "Yes, but he got it." I lift my feet up and rest them on the side of my husband's chair for about twenty minutes afterwards. I glance nervously at the floor before reaching down into my backpack to get my stress ball and I do some deep breathing. I had had a cup of regular coffee before church, which did nothing to attenuate the rush of anxiety I could feel coursing through my veins. For quite a while afterwards I sit still and sense a vibration throughout my entire body, so high-pitched and nearly audible. If a dog had wandered into the room at this point he would surely have begun to howl in pain at the sound of my nerves reaching a frequency that only his ears could hear.

My praying mantids are twice the size they were when I got them, nearly an inch long now, and if I knew how to do it without freaking myself out, I would love to get a centipede into their enclosure and watch them go at it. That would give me great pleasure.