Nature

We were walking to the mailbox. (Does anybody else remember a time when each house had it's own mailbox, on the same actual property as the actual house, or was that just a dream I had?) Passing a house, Zoe notices movement at the base of the Happy Tree (it has a face nailed onto it) which we investigate, only to find a cicada sort of staggering around. Zoe wants to hold him, and since it is my crusade to raise a girl-child who does NOT run simpering around when a BUG shows up, I figured, what the hell, I'll go pick up this freak of nature and let her hold it. Which I do. But then she doesn't want to hold it. So I go to put it back down, and notice as I try to pry it's feet from the ridges of my fingerprints, that it doesn't look quite RIGHT. I bring it closer to my face to study it. Oh, now I see!

IT HAS NO HEAD.

Holy shit. Must've been staggering around because a bird nipped his noggin off! Using the surge of adrenaline provided by an overwhelming case of the willies, I got him off my finger and we resumed our mission to the mailbox.

Bleah.