I learned a new word a few weeks ago: morcego. It's the Portuguese word for "bat". Not the bat you use for baseball, though. Unfortunately, it's the word for the ugly black creature that flaps its wings and screeches loudly while being attacked by a broom. It's a hideous critter and one that SHOULD NOT be in my daughter's bedroom - ever!
It was early in the morning, like 8am or so. The sky was overcast and looked like it was going to rain. I opened up all the windows and let the cool air in. At some point, I returned to Emma's room and decided to finally pick up her princess poster that had been on the floor since the move. I knew where I wanted it to go on the wall. As I grabbed the poster, I saw something dark under it and I jumped back. Then I went back for it and thought that maybe it was a lizard and I can handle lizards. No big deal. Then I realized that it was darker and thicker than a lizard. I slowly lifted the poster and then dropped it back down. I ran to the phone and called Kevin at work, yelling at him, "There's a BAT in Emma's room!! A BAT! A BAT, Kevin! Do you hear me? What do I do?" I think he was laughing at me. I didn't really need him to tell me what to do; I just needed some moral support. He did give me some good advice to close the door to Emma's room. Otherwise the bat could get out into other parts of our house and we'd never get it and live in fear of when it was going to come out! So, I hung up the phone and Emma and I went into her room, armed with a broom and my camera (because a story is always better with a picture). She crawled up onto her bed for the show and I closed the door. I removed the poster and threw it across the room. The bat was about a foot from Emma's balcony door and the door was wide open, but he decided to go the other way and crawled under Emma's dresser! Dumb bat. All I could think was that if he got behind Emma's bed, I'd have to wait for Kevin to get home that night to help me get it out. NO WAY was I going to wait that long! Using the broom, I smashed him against the floor and then just stood there, not knowing what to do. I knew I didn't smash him hard enough to kill him, so I half-expected him to fly at me when I lifted the broom up. But when I lifted it, he started half-crawling, half-sliding toward the door. It was like his slimy body was suctioned to the tile floor and he couldn't quite get up and go. Finally, he made it to the door. His slow exit gave me a little bit of time to get some blurry pictures, proof that I'm not crazy and there was, in fact, a bat in my daughter's bedroom!! Once he hit the balcony corner, he jumped off and flew away. I thought I had maimed him, but nope, he was just fine. Off he went. Had things gone differently, I wouldn't have been so eager to tell the story, but because he flew away and didn't bite or do anything else bad to us, I was happy to tell people I had fended off a morcego! Emma did remind me that the bat left some droppings in her room, like fifteen of them. We cleaned them up and told everyone about the bat that had visited her room that morning!
