I live in a huge house that is very old. And in the
basement there are
centipedes. They're perfectly happy to live in the basement all summer, but
come the Autumn, their
feet get cold and they start looking for heat.
Big centipedes with lots of legs.
((((((((((((((((((
((((((((((((((((((
Sort of like that, only bigger. And they have a head. But they move so fast
I've never actually seen a head, so I can't create one from memory.
My room is on the second floor, far above the basement. Being an
old building, it has deep sub-floors and the sub-floors are connected
by passages through which run pipes and the like.
I've lain awake at night, tracing the paths of centipedes to my room. I know
how they do it. They climb the pipes, scuttle through the sub-floor, climb
more pipes up into another sub-floor. And do you know where they come out?
Through the hole in the bottom of my closet! I can't patch the hole because I'd
have to rebuild the closet to get to it.
I don’t like killing them, but they’re really hard to catch. So during the day when I can see them, I throw a damp cloth over them, scoop them up and put them outside. They probably run around the side of the building, climb through the basement window and start all over again, but at least they’re having fun instead of being dead.
I’d say, over all, that I have a good relationship with centipedes.
Except at night, when I can’t see them. I can only lay on my futon on the 125 year-old oak floor, ten feet from the hole in my closet and hope that they don’t figure out that the very best place to warm their feet is where I am.