Power Cut

The lights went out this evening in the southern Thai village where Jip grew up. I was visiting her mother. We had been putting our feet up, watching a bit of TV. Mom suggested that I walk across the main room and check out the front window to see if other houses had power. They didn’t.

As I groped my way back across the room, it dawned on me that the phone in my pocket can become a flashlight. The beam revealed a large scorpion crawling slowly across the floor where I’d just walked.

Mom reacted casually. I froze in my tracks. She said, “I’ll fetch a kitchen knife.” Evidently she planned to cut the scorpion in half. Somehow the scorpion figured out her plan. It scampered.

When Mom returned from the kitchen she saw she was too late. Then she looked at my spooked expression. “Don’t worry,” she comforted, “It’s only the tiny ones that can kill you.”