First Encounters

I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that this cockroach, barely even a tiny fraction of my own size, has kept me awake for the last three hours. At around 2am, I heard a scratchy rustling noise that I decided had beem the power cord on my lamp slipping down the wall and tried to go to sleep. A short while later, I heard a similar rustling noise and hoped it might be something outside. When I raised my head to hear better, it stopped. Not a good sign.

A few minutes later, I heard the noise again. I knew it had to be in my room, and it sounded scarily close. I sat up and switched on the lamp, only to discover the tail end of a huge cockroach scurrying back out of sight behind the nightstand. Ooh, my skin is crawling just thinking about it, and we're still only about thirty minutes in. After quickly and nervously removing all my things from the top of the nightstand, I sat watching it intently. The cockroach ventured out twice more, creeping out from the shadows before being scared off by my movement. It was a terrifying time. Eventually I was able to look away long enough to play with internet on my phone and spent the next hour and a half or so glancing up from various news articles/blog posts to check on the roach's possible presence.

Eventually I talked myself into thinking I could coexist with it; what more could it do to me than give a few heebie jeebies and maybe a bacterium or two? So I laid back down and thought about turning off the light. I wasn't quite ready for that step, and thank goodness, because next thing I know (thirty minutes later), I hear that rustling sound again. I look over the edge of the bed to see it waiting at the corner of the stand, halfway hidden against the wall. Yeah, I sure wasn't going to sleep as long as it was there. I managed to reach my arm out and push the nightstand into the wall, pinning the cockroach just long enough to grab a sneaker and smash it to hell.

Now that it's dead and the adrenaline of the kill has petered out of my system, I feel a little bad for killing it. I guess that's my burden to bear now, along with this drowsy day ahead of me. Here's hoping that I don't see many more of these guys in the next few weeks.