"Where did it come from?"

That is what we really want to know.  Where did the scorpion Natalie saw yesterday crawling across the kitchen floor come from?

The most likely theory:  Inside Max's soccer cleats, which had been washed and left outside overnight to dry.  Natalie was about to put the cleats in a bag to take to practice when she saw the scorpion scamper across the floor and onto the ledge of a stair.  Did she scream?  Maybe.

If the scorpion dropped from Max's cleats, at least it originated outside.  Other theories about where it was hiding are more disturbing.  Was it in our bedroom?  The bathroom?  In one of our shoes that was inside the house?  In the dirty clothes basket?  Our neighbors/landlords found a scorpion under a couch cushion a couple of weeks ago.  We took comfort in the fact that we have no couch.  Now that sense of security is gone.

People have told us to expect more scorpions because it is getting hot.  But not to worry, they say.  These scorpions are not the most poisonous kind.  Their stings merely hurt, give you a rash, and cause muscle spasms for a day or two.  And to think, we were worried.

I would like to say that we trapped and relocated the scorpion to a place where it will not hurt us.  In a sense, we did.  We cornered it, dropped a rock on it, and relocated its remains to a hole in the garden.

Hand of death

May it rest in peace.  --Harrison