Two Women vs. the Grasshopper

A short story sharing the moments before my summer vacation, and how one moment of forgetfulness led to an "epic" battle between two women - who are seriously afraid of all sorts of bugs - and a grasshopper - Japanese size (large) and perky enough (or, sadistic enough) to jump in the sweltering heat of summer.

The last day of work before summer vacation looked to be a moderately busy day with 5 classes on my schedule.  A couple cancellations came in though, and I had a 4 hour block of free time (including lunch).  The staff decided to start our pre-break cleaning, and we ended up going a bit above-and-beyond by cleaning the entire teachers' office and kitchen area.  We spent a good hour or so and had more than 4 bags of papers, flattened boxes, and other stuff to junk in the trash.  It clearly hadn't been cleaned in a year or two.  Once done, it looked much more refreshing and organized - as much as a cramped and tiny office can be.  We were satisfied with it.  As to my own desk area, I had cleaned it off and reorganized some of the items onto shelves.  During this process, I placed my cell phone on a side shelf - a newly open area for me to place things.  

Classes got busy shortly after and before we knew it, the end of the day was approaching and we were winding up things for the vacation.  We had to clean out rooms and make sure all things were ready for our absence.  In our rush to get out the door, I didn't spend much time thinking as I gathered my things quickly.  My manager had assigned me one or two new tasks unexpectedly, so I was a bit frazzled.  Needless to say, we were all in high spirits as we walked out of the building and parted ways, looking forward to the vacation.

I didn't walk for more than 30 seconds, before remembering I needed to message my coworker about getting together for coffee over the break... and then, realizing I had left my phone on that new shelf area... still up in the now-locked office.  There was a moment of panic, then a moment of "can I go the break without my phone," to the answer of "no... crap, I have to catch up with my manager to reopen the office asap!"  I turned around and ran to the train station.  Luckily enough, she wasn't walking too quickly and I was able to catch her attention after calling her name a few times.  I certainly felt awkward running after her and yelling her name, but it was either that or no phone over the break.... so, yea, the yelling won out over any sense of embarrassment here.

She was glad I caught her as going without my phone over the break could have been a problem, especially if there was an emergency.  We headed back into the building, up the elevator, and around to the back door.  Walking ahead of me, she rounded the last corner and then, squealed and rushed back at me!  I was surprised, asking "what happened" and such.  She told me to look around the corner... on the ground, blocking our way to the back door was the largest grasshopper I've ever seen.  At first I didn't know what it was, since I wasn't expecting a grasshopper that big.  We spent a few minutes panicking and trying to figure out if we could go around it.  My manager said I was crazy, "they can fly, you know!" she told me.  

Grasshopper in Japan - See how BIG that thing is?

Of course, my next bright idea was to try and scare it off by kicking a rock at it.  There was one conveniently on the ground nearby and with true irony, I managed to kick it soundly at the grasshopper and incite its wrath!  It flew up and toward us!  We both screamed and ran back around the corner to hide and catch our breath.  Seriously, we wondered, "is the phone worth this?," "should we turn back," and "is there a guy we can call to come help us"... yes, we are truly afraid of bugs and not ashamed to be wimpy about it. We also imagined that if our other staff member had come along to help retrieve my phone, (1) he would have saved the day for us, but (2) he would have been dying of laughter at the same time - laughing at us, that is.  We weren't sure if we regretted his absence or not.

We ended up realizing the grasshopper was closer now to us than the back stairway, and we could possibly access the door from that route.  We trekked down to the first floor again and up the back stairwell.  My manager insisted I go first, just in case... she was sacrificing me for her fear, which was notably worse than mine (though both of us were nervous).  As we crept up the last set of stairs, I peered around the corner at our enemy and noted his position.  Luckily he hadn't moved yet, so I signaled to my manager she could go ahead and unlock the door.  We had one false alarm where the evil grasshopper made a few wing beats and this eerie clicking noise... that thing was sadistic, I swear.  We panicked again and my manager was trying to hide behind me, which was totally unfair in my opinion.  We almost went flying down the stairs again to abandon the whole operation.... but, decided to try one last time.  We had the keys ready and as soon as the coast was clear (er, the grasshopper was not moving), we rushed to the door and darted inside.  Phew!  I grabbed my phone and was grateful it was there.  I would have hated to go through all that and realize my phone was lost in the bottom of my purse or something.

Of course, once the target was retrieved, we still had to get out of the building.  This went much more quickly... we flew out the door and, after a quick lockup with both of us dancing in place with our desire to run, we were gone down the stairs.  From there it was smooth, but we still felt like the bugs were following us... that itchy feeling on your arms that happens occasionally.  We were so relieved to step out onto the main street once again, mission accomplished successfully!

What a way to start a vacation, huh?  .