They had found the perfect hiding place. They waited quietly, for silence; silence and darkness. When they were sure they had both they emerged, ready to storm the counters, ready to capture the crumbs, ready to infiltrate the disposal, ready to infest.

They were devious. They were roaches. They were German. 

In an earlier post I said that we’d never had the German roaches in our house. That was an assumption I had made and, of course, you know what happens when we assume. 

Right after that post, I saw them. They were sneaky, but somehow one slipped up. He revealed himself at sunrise threatening not only himself, but his entire regiment. They’d been holed up in papers and important documents, documents that I immediately dropped to the floor and crushed. I thought I’d gotten them all, but we called in the big guns to be sure, after all we were not dealing with the typical Asians or Americans, these were the Germans.

He came to my door, unassuming and quiet, but deadly. 

He set his traps, he sprayed, and we waited. For days we saw nothing and I thought maybe we’d gotten them; but one of them made the same mistake, emerging again from the papers at sunrise. Once again, I threw them down. I stomped, I jumped, and I crushed. And then, it came to me, I moved the papers proving that I do, occasionally, think.

All was quiet after that…until last night. Last night I received that fateful call that no morning coffee lover wants to receive.

“Mom, I have bad news. I found them.”

It was Rachel, she had found their lair. They had clandestinely infiltrated Mr. Coffee. They had lodged themselves deep within his recesses and waited…for the quiet, for the darkness, for the pizza that was in the box on top of the coffee maker. She caught them by surprise. She went on a rampage killing and disinfecting everything in sight. Alas, Mr. Coffee was a victim of the carnage. He was bagged up and buried before I got home. Rachel thought it would be easier on me. I silently prayed for the fallen. I never had the chance to say good-bye. I guess it’s really not that big a deal.

The picture of this beautiful sunrise was taken by my brother, Paul. It can be found at nuhorizondesign.com.