Sleeping inside the net has lent a princess-like appeal to my otherwise dreary bedroom. It's also provided a sense of calm and safety (there are a lot of potential creepy crawlies in this humid, close-to-the-lagoon house.)
One morning I wandered sleepily into the laundry room to grab a towel and find something to wear. A usual morning ritual. When I turned on the light I noticed a round large critter supported on thin legs. My just awakened mind could not make sense of what I was seeing. I wasted several minutes trying to morph the ideas of spider (waaay too big to be a spider- I hoped. It couldn't be a spider my mind insisted as, at the same time, it couldn't register anything else. It had to be a spider...could it really be a spider?) and alien (it had to be an alien, right? Hard, round shell. Robot-like spindly legs.)
"Oh my, oh my oooooh my," was all I could say as other options flitted briefly through my thoughts. Nightmares were fresh in my memory. I backed away to grab my phone and hopefully snap a photo.
Of course, the whole time I was muttering oh mys and this eventually scared him away. He went click clacking off into a corner and secured himself underneath the car seat sitting there. The clatter of his legs? hooves? made me think 'crab' but he wasn't red, or flat or speaking with a Jamaican accent.
Mohamed insisted I didn't see what I saw and we spent a bit of time wondering how to get him out of there. When Christine showed up, we told her about it and she promised to search high and low. "It might be a crab," she said. "I'll get him out of there." She waved a stick around to show she meant business. Mohamed gave me his trademark smile and winked.
"She's a real African woman," he said. "She's not afraid of anything. She can kill a rat." He was referring to our previous mouse problem which Christine tackled with gusto- planting mouse catchers and removing the critters without remorse.
When we came back home, however, she had nothing to report. Despite a thorough cleaning, she hadn't turned up the click-clacking offender. Perhaps he'd gotten out on his own? I couldn't really imagine how he had even gotten in in the first place. He was large, larger than my fist. And the shell was hard- not conducive to squeezing beneath cracks. After reflecting all day, it seemed likely what I'd seen was a crab, even though my google search didn't turn up any crabs walking in full blown puffer fish mode. Based on my quick sketch, everyone seemed to think crab (after ruling out jelly fish) especially given how close we live to the lagoon. But it only seems close in people terms, if you have long legs to traverse the distance. It seems more like another country when thinking in crab terms.
When it rains, the streets do become littered with small ponds and lakes. In a few heavy downpours, the water has flooded our small road entirely and even covered most of our front yard. Maybe it was possible he puddle hopped all the way? I still couldn't figure out why. What do crabs eat anyway? The more I thought about it and talked it over with Nabih, the more I realized I don't actually know very much about crabs.
Just after dinner, I grabbed a small bag and intended to run over to the corner boutique. As I made my way for the door, I stopped and breathed in deeply. There he was. Proof! This time, he wasn't "up" in his round mode, but laying flat and distinctly more crab-like just in front of the screen door, like a puppy waiting to go out for his evening walk.
I wondered how he had gotten there without any of us noticing. There was nothing small or indiscreet about him. How did he skitter along the baseboards (of our very pale yellow and still quite empty house) without being seen- or heard on our tile floor?
I went to get my phone (again- this time trying to be more quiet- though now the boys were running around up in arms.) They let me take some grainy shots in our flimsy evening light and eventually we opened the door for our guest who scuttled out into the yard taking cover by the palm tree.
I've been prepared for lots of "visitors"- cockroaches bigger than fingers, mice, rats as big as cats, termites, spiders and lizards (the large blue and orange ones, the medium greenish-gray ones and the tiny almost see through ones.) In other countries, I've encountered bats (inside,) raccoons (outside) and even bears. My path has crossed snakes, turtles, goats and dogs. I guess now I can add hard-shelled, click-clacking, alien-cousin-resembling crabs to the list. Hopefully he won't be able to make it past my mosquito net.
 |
| grainy lochness monster-type photo of my alien-crab- he really does exist, though- the boys saw him too! |
 |
| our flooded walkway- although the morning of the crab sighting all was dry |
