By Bonita Wilborn
We had a strange experience today. We were riding down the road on our way home from lunch, and a little gecko suddenly appeared on the dashboard of our vehicle. It just crawled out of a crevice, and there it was, looking at me. It didn’t seem the least bit shy and came right across the dashboard toward me.
We had been to church before lunch, and I had my tablet lying in my lap, so I picked it up and swatted at the varmint, but it was very quick and darted back out of reach. I expected that it would disappear back into whatever crevice it had come out of since I missed it, but NO!
It came right back for more. So I made another vain attempt to swat it. Again it got out of the way just in time, but the next thing I knew, it was no longer on the dashboard; it was on my lap.
I guess adrenaline improved my reflexes because I swatted it off my lap with my hand, but it still wasn’t deterred. It quickly headed up my right leg, and I feared it was going right up my dress tail.
About then, Ricky swerved over into the Walgreens parking lot and into a parking space. I opened the door and got out, not sure but what that critter was still on me. I’m sure America’s Funniest Home Videos would have had a field day with the dance I was probably doing, but I didn’t abandon my dress, thank goodness.
I finally decided that the crazed gecko must still be in the car. So I began looking for it, unsure how I’d get it out of the car even if I found it.
Well, I looked, and looked, and looked; under the seat, in the back floorboard, oh no, in my purse (which was sitting on the front floorboard underneath where my knees had been), but no gecko.
Well, after a while, I decided that wherever it was, we couldn’t sit there in the Walgreens parking lot forever. I was already pondering, having to know it was still there as I was driving to work in the morning and when it might appear again.
Thankfully just as I was about to get back into the vehicle, I saw his beady little eyes staring up at me from the edge of the floor mat he was underneath. At that point, a bit of relief swept over me, knowing where he was, but he WAS still in the vehicle.
So, being really ready for this adventure to come to an end, I tried to squish him, the operative word there being tried. But just as I reached down to make another fatal attempt, he must have decided that it was time to “get out of Dodge” because he came out from under the floor mat and onto the edge of the vehicle where I stood with the door open. One last swat, and he was on the pavement. Whew!! He scurried away, and as far as I know, he never looked back.
With a sigh of relief, I entered the vehicle, and we continued our journey home, minus one little gecko. As best we could determine, he must have crawled into our vehicle through the small crack we’d left in the window at church as we were parked in a grassy area near a tree.