I almost swallowed a bug yesterday.

It must have been in the coffee, what little was left in the pot from the day before.
If it wasn’t dead yet, it was dead after I zapped it in the microwave.
I still can’t believe I didn’t notice it when I poured the coffee into the mug,
or when I poured the coffee, steaming, over a bowl of Homemade Vanilla.
Maybe it fell into my bowl as I sat spooning and sipping my concoction in the living room.
Maybe it had been crawling on the ceiling.
Almost finished the melted ice cream and now-cold coffee,
talking to my dad, I feel something hit my lip.
Look down.  It’s a big, black bug.
My first thought was, thank God I’ve always sipped things
very carefully with my lips nearly closed.
“Oh, my.  I think I’m gonna be…” was all that came out,
and my hand covered my mouth and I couldn’t figure out how to make it come back down.
“…sick?” Dad finished for me.

I couldn’t tell.  Every now and then I’d shudder at the thought, but part of me didn’t care.
Might have been different if I’d swallowed it and felt it in my mouth
instead of just on my lip. 
That’s a thought worth jumping around
for.
(Just imagine if I’d swallowed it!  I would have had spasms for days,
and I’d have been tempted to have them turn me upside down.)

My sister took the bowl from me and fished out the bug onto a napkin.
It looked like a cross between a mosquito and a fly.
It’s upper body was textured like a fly, and rounded, but it was bigger and had a nose like a ‘skeeter.
Actually, it looked like the nose of a tiny anteater.  Maybe it was just having it’s afternoon coffee when I fried it.
Oh, and it had a stinger, or at least a very pointed end.
I wish I had a picture of it to post.   I’ve never seen a bug like that before,
and I’ve lived here for nearly thirty years.
It didn’t look real.  Something out of a story.  Or a crossbreeding lab in a movie.
How on EARTH did it get in my bowl???
I think looking at it made me think more like a scientist about it (I love dissecting),
so no freaking out, dancing around the kitchen like we usually do around here.

But I still couldn’t eat supper.