A STRANGE STORY

Marilu came to visit us last week. She's the lady we purchased the new house from. She's 84 or 85 and we didn't know her well before we bought the house, but now that she's moved away, we keep in touch and it's almost like we gained an elderly aunt as well as a new house to fix up. During her visit, I took her inside to look at the paint and colors we were putting on her once white walls and she approved. She approved the roses and verbena blooming in her once empty flower beds. She told Bill and me she's real happy we bought the house. It feels like it's in good hands to her.

During the course of her visit, I showed her where I was moving aside hundreds of bricks to rebuild a brick patio that had become overrun with grass and weeds. "Watch out for scorpions!" she warned me.

"Scorpions? I haven't seen one, although I've been looking for them," I said. "I don't think there's any around."

"There are too!" She moved her hand in front of my face and massaged a finger on her right hand. "I got bit on this finger a few years ago. A big brown one! I called 9-1-1 and it was three days before I got feeling back in it. Ooohhh! I HATE scorpions!" She shuddered.

"Well, I'll keep my eyes open," I promised. "But I've moved that pile of bricks out there and haven't seen a one."

"Oh, it wasn't in the garden," Marilu exclaimed. "It was in the kitchen. I'd just gotten up and was standing by the sink, running some water for coffee. This big brown scorpion crawled out of the drain and bit my finger. I've ALWAYS checked the drain after that!"

"Strange," I muttered, wondering whether Marilu was mistaken or just telling 'an old lady's tale'. "But I've seen nothing in the drain. I haven't even seen a dead bug in the house."

"They come up through the drain from the sewer," she repeated ominously.

I didn't repeat the story to Bill. Again, I thought it was just a tale she was telling me.

The next day, I was doing some painting in the living room and came into the kitchen to use the sink to rinse out a brush. ( I LOVE water based paints!) As the water was running, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. At the mouth of the drain in the same sink Marilu had warned me about was a fair sized, two and a half inch brown scorpion. It was waving his tail menacingly at me. Like maybe he was trying to catch and sting my finger.

I drew back, sucking my breath in. Yep! Here was Marilu's scorpion, come out of the sewer and into the sink to take a bite of the new owner. Well, lucky for me, I rinsed him back down the sink before he had a chance to put his plan into effect. But I keep my eyes open now and realize it wasn't just a story Marilu was telling me!