Our kitchen. I’m attempting to clear the counters of the ever growing pile of trash, tools, or what have you and putting things in the pantry. Love the pantry. During the unpacking chaos, stuff from boxes marked “kitchen” were haphazardly grouped by likeness and therefore it needs more organization. {Enter lizard} I’m placing a bowl in the pantry from the counter as a teeny orangish lizard crawls lightening fast down the back corner. {insert freakout here}
EMILY: “Michael! Michael! Michael! There is a lizard in there. There is a lizard in there.”
MICHAEL: (Ever so calmly does he say) “Welcome to Florida.”
EMILY: “Are you going to kill it?”
MICHAEL: “That could get messy.”
EMILY: “Ew. That's true. Outside?”
MICHAEL: “Hand me some Tupperware, yes we will put him outside.”
EMILY: (handing over Tupperware) “Is he poisonous?”
MICHAEL: “We aren’t gonna find out. Now the lid please.”
EMILY: (handing over lid) “Do you suppose he has a family out there?”
MICHAEL: “They are probably all waiting for him. (a beat) I can’t find him.”
(a few minutes of moving around the pantry items)
MICHAEL: (talking to lizard who we have now named) “Come on little guy.”
EMILY: “I just saw him, there he is!”
MICHAEL: (after a minute of coaxing him into Tupperware) “Got him.”
EMILY: (relieved he didn’t get poisoned) “Phew.”
After this we ran errands and the lizard (we named him Bet) came with us... we weren’t sure where to put him. We ended up keeping him the whole day, and found another lizard on the back porch that evening (inside the screen) and so we trapped it too. Much the same way. We named this one Midler. We think this lizard was part of the family awaiting Bet’s return to the wild.
About 30 minutes of watching them and admiring the details on their weird looking little bodies we threw them far into the woods behind our backyard. Yes, we have woods.
Goodbye Bet, Goodbye Midler, this one was “for the boys” ;) And thank you Jesus for little moments, details, and screened in porches... not that they matter.
-Queen&King Lear