Centeripedes (Memories of Old Josh, #38)

Memories of Old Josh, in:
Centipedes

(Forth Series, Episode: # 38)

(1908) Old Josh used to watch the centipedes with all their legs speed across the wooden floors of his shanty shack; he was amazed at all those legs working in unison. He wasn’t sure exactly how they moved, but they looked as if they moved without thinking, and they’d speed across one side of the hut, to the other, spot him, and try to hide here or there, before he stomped on them barefoot.
Silas his oldest son now is doing just that, just like his pa used to do, watching those centipedes, in particular, this one. Jordon don’t care for them, he’s kind of afraid of such creatures, and avoids them like the plague, along with spiders and other creepy crawlers.

Says Jordon to Silas: “Day sho hav a strange looking body keeps it ‘way from me!”
Silas: “Day move wid greet speed, to bad you ant like dhem!” (and laughs)

Jordon keeps his distance.
Now Silas is following the creature with his eyes and feet, and Jordon is in back of him, looking but keeping a safe distance from the creature; now it starts to zigzag, and Jordon jumps up on a chair (Silas laughs). Then Silas gets a cramp in his leg and falls flat on top of the centipede—with is face under it, and I think Jordon stops breathing for a moment, in disbelief, trying to figure out how he is going to get off the chair and out of the shack, he needs to see where the centipede is before he makes his move—he is not that concerned about Silas at all.
Silas gets up, looks at Jordon, and asks, “Wuh is you up dere brother?”
The centipede is in his mouth, and Silas is a bit fogy, if not down right off balance, the fall made him dizzy. He swallows the centipede when he opens his mouth to take in a big gulp of air (later on he will get diarrhea).
Jordon is happy—he’s got a smile from his upper eye to his lower chin, he gets to get off the chair now, for he knows where the centipede is.
Says Jordon to Silas (Silas now sick as a hog):
“Pa never did eat one of dem critters (with a depraved smile).”


Note: Perhaps this story originates from my childhood. My mother, brother and grandfather all lived together, and when my mother saw a centerlines, she’d scream, and old grandpa would come out from wherever he was, and swear, and step on the creature with his bare feet. And my mother would come out of her frozen state, or trance. I suppose I was the one more amazed at how those legs could coordinate with the mind to work in unison, written at Starbucks, in Circle, 2-19-2008, in Lima Peru.