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We've Seen Some Strange Things Since We Moved Out Into The Country # 2 - The Unexpected Visitor Copyright 2001 by Michelle Jones
Having lived in Alabama for the previous
two years, we were used to what's eloquently referred to as Palmetto bugs;
better known as giant cockroaches. Whatever their official name is, they are
really disgusting. I was born and raised in Florida, so I have a particular
disliking to them, as I'm sure many people do.
But one of the worst things about
cockroaches is that they do not limit their habitation to the country. In
fact, they live and breed in any warm environment they can find, even in the
city and suburbs. This was one thing we were looking forward to being rid of
when we learned we were transferring further north, to North Carolina.
Well, not only did we not get rid of the
cockroaches (maybe they hitched a ride on the moving truck), but we had
another unexpected visitor as well. Though we only lived in NC for three
months, it was quite an exciting time for us.
I was eight months pregnant and unable to
go on the house-hunting trip. With the baby on the way, we were in a hurry to
move quickly. My husband, Wayne, found the best thing he could find within our
budget. Unfortunately, his search was quite disappointing. The only house he
could find was over forty miles from his office; it was WAY out into the
country.
Our new home turned out to be an old
farmhouse that had holes in the floor and around the windows too! We knew it
was just temporary, possibly six months to a year, but it was still quite an
adjustment for us. Though we stayed within our budget, we're still not
convinced it was worth it.
We moved into the house on August 3, 1999
and just before midnight on August 18th we made the hour long drive to the
hospital to have our baby. I wrote more about that great event in A Mother's
Great Sacrifice - Part 4, so I will not do that here.
August is a hot month anyways, but as our
luck would have it, NC was in the middle of a heat wave. The heat index was
over 110 degrees, so I'm sure the cockroaches were in hog heaven. Gross!
Having had a difficult cesarean delivery, I practically lived on the living
room couch for the first few weeks, with the baby and her bassinet beside me.
Everything was going well, the baby and I were doing fine.
But on one of those hot summer nights, just
a few weeks later, we had an unexpected visitor. I have to say he caught us
completely off guard, being the city folk that we were.
As I was getting ready for bed that night,
I began to roll the bassinet out of the living room to move it into our
bedroom, as I did every night. As I pulled it away from the side of the couch
where I had just been sitting, I noticed something on the floor.
It was just a crumpled up sock that someone
had misplaced. But the small coasters on the bottom of the bassinet would not
roll over the sock. So I reached my foot over to toss the sock aside. It was
at that moment that Wayne heard my blood-curdling scream from the kitchen and
came running to see what had happened. (He said my scream was so loud he
thought one of the children had died!)
Underneath the sock, was hiding a curled up
2-foot long greenish black snake. As soon as I had reached my foot towards the
sock, the snake had came out from under it and slithered past me, going down
the hallway, into our bedroom, and under our bed!
It took Wayne quite awhile to get that
snake out from under our bed, but thankfully he did. Needless to say, we were
all so 'rattled' by the event that it was quite awhile before we slept very
well in THAT house!
Thank God, just a few days later, Wayne was
given the opportunity to transfer again. You can just imagine how gladly we
accepted that offer! We moved to Virginia the last week of October, and
believe it or not... we moved out into the country, AGAIN!
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