EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALApril 25, 1999
La Cucaracha II
The engineers are outsmarting each other. Rich plugs drains and
seals overflow holes in the sink and bathtub. He tapes up the bidet and any gaps he can
see in the tiles. "Those cockroaches are smart and they remember their routes. This
way they will learn that our bathroom is not accessible."
A few nights pass uneventfully. It seems the human engineer’s
methods are roach-engineer proof, and we sleep soundly, without fear of bed companions or
lack of bathroom privacy.
This morning there he struggles, between the bidet and the tub, on his
back, exhausted. Rich stands over him, watching one leg as it twitches pathetically.
"How did you get in here?"
Rich gets down on all fours, looking for ins from the perspective of
his adversary. The little ancient engineer has masterfully found a hole, perhaps his only
route to refuge from an exterminator somewhere. Under the tub’s lip, between the
porcelain and the tile, there is a gap. The cockroach has climbed out of it and fallen
from the slippery surface. Now he lies in his fatigue after a night of exercise, trying
get back onto his feet.
"Ah ha! You crafty little wonder." The gap is sealed and the
cockroach removed from his misery, defeated by his own efforts, or our slippery ceramic
graveyard, or some destructive force beyond our walls and pipes.
