Fear of Things

There is a Thing in my coffee mug.

I don't have room for both my (small) collection of coffee mugs and my (very large) collection of books, so I display some of the coffee mugs on top of the books. Today I went to find a certain novel, lifted a coffee mug off and saw out of the corner of my eye that a Thing was moving inside.

I let out a scream, put the cup down on the table and backed away. Then I circled the table, trying to see what exactly was inside without actually looking at it full-on and scarring myself for life - you know, the same way you might regard Dread Cthulhu. I caught one glimpse of antennae and a dark brown carapace before my skin started crawling (much as the Thing probably did) and my stomach lurched.

With the shock fading, I realized the Thing might well escape from the coffee mug to terrorize me further. So I grabbed a library book (hardcover, difficult to push off) and covered the mug with it.

I'll wait a few days, by which time the Thing will hopefully be dead, and then take the mug outside, a short distance from my home. There I will remove the book, turn the mug upside down and run back inside.

I'm not afraid of public speaking or even drawing blood, but Things freak me out.

SWest said:

Some of those lying-in-wait Things can live for days without food, water or fresh air.

Click to expand...

Oy. So on top of everything else it's damn near immortal.

I would actually rest safer knowing it's dead, but since I can't bring myself to look at it, much less swat it, that's a problem.

And it's only small compared to, say, me. It's a lot bigger than a ladybug.

OK, you guys have convinced me. Taking it outside now. I probably wouldn't have gotten much more editing done knowing it was so close, too - it freaking RUINED the good mood I got from the sex scene.

A cricket would chirp, wouldn't it?

This is no Jiminy. This is evil incarnate.