The Katydid Smasher

Sunday, October 14, 2012
It was 11:22 pm. I was supposed to be asleep. (Who’s supposed to be awake twenty-two minutes after eleven?)
Anyway, I was reading a really good book, Escape to Murray River, on my Kindle, and I couldn’t put it down. No school on Sundays, so I didn’t have a care in the world. Right? I was dead wrong!
Turns out that katydids are nocturnal. I… didn’t know that. And, a lot of nocturnal bugs are attracted to light. So, there I was, reading my lit- up Kindle, nothing going on.
Then, at exactly 11:23, I started thinking. Not like I don’t think a lot, or like my brain has some weird on/off switch, but hey, it was late. And the book was really good.
This is a good book. It reminds me of Number the Stars.
Uughh… This pony-tail-holder is pulling my hair out! I have got to get some thicker ones!
Wait a second… that is not my hair band. I’m not wearing one. Somethings…..
-Eeeeekk!- something was in my hair! I brushed my head off with my arm, then brushed my arm off on the bed sheets. Did not want to have it crawling on me.
What was that? Where is it? I thought.
I searched frantically around my tiny loft, trying to find it. I tried to remember what happened.
A second later, I saw something. Two somethings. Wiggling somethings. From under my Kindle. And, hold on, were the pages of Escape to Murray River turning?
Then it hit me- Right after I knocked that thing off my head, I smashed it with my Kindle!
Oh boy, I thought, This can only mean one thing…. one horrible, scary, jump- down- from- the- second- floor kind of thing…
Yes. That bug’s antennae were the only things that I hadn’t crushed. So there they were, wiggling helplessly around, hitting the touch screen, flipping the pages.
“Uuuugghhh….” I said.
I didn’t wait to see if it would finish reading my book. I rushed down the ladder and jumped into my little brother’s bed.
Have you ever watched Kung-fu Panda? Well, all I could think about was that katydid picking up my Kindle and throwing it around like Mantis.
This morning, it was gone. I hope it stays gone. FOREVER.
-The Katydid Smasher