Beautiful Arthur

What happens when you see a lizard or any other creepy crawly things? Your gut feeling is to kill it! But for the first time, I am surrounded by ardent fans and supporters and I am a lone protester. The other day just as I stepped outside my door and down the steps, what do I see, a big lizard with a blue tongue and, ufff, I can't describe it further. Of course, I yelled out a loud scream which had my neighbour asking after me later.

Lolo is used to my screams by now. My paranoia stems from everything including spiders, you know those daddy long legs! He walked behind me and I was explaining in plain hysteria the size of the lizard and so on. More livid was my state when I saw his non-plussed reaction. "Oh, it's a beautiful creature and it is harmless." Harmless? So what? I can't stand its look! I wanted to kill it immediately but thankfully it escaped from my sight and went into a hole it has dug out for itself underneath my steps and behind the flowers.

The next day, I was telling Lyne my neighbour about this bloodi huge big, ugly lizard. And I should have known better but she also came with the same 'Oh they are beautiful creatures" reply. What is more, she brought her friends to show them the lizard and they kept raving about it for hours on end. One lamented, "you don't see them in the cities." How lucky, I thought!  Another said, "My son had it as a pet for years and one day we found him dead across the road. We didn't tell him as we didn't want to break his heart." Oh me gosh, who on earth wants a snake or a lizard as a pet?

Lyne also delved into the history of this lizard whom Lolo and I have now named Arthur. She said Arthur lived in the house in front of us and then it was in the tunnel, and now finally, it has come right under my house! She thinks we are fortunate! I wanted to tell her she can take it in her house and breed it.

I threw some dried twigs at it the other day as it was stubbornly basking itself in the afternoon sun. The bloodi idiot would not move but Lolo caught me doing it and said "That is a cruel thing to do." I was a bit hurt that my paranoia meant nothing compared to the beauty of Arthur!

My father-in-law Eric visited us this afternoon with a fruit cake Shirley, my mother-in-law, baked for us. I was telling him about Arthur. While he laughed at the name, he too told me it was harmless and that when he was a teacher up in the country, many years ago, he had held the likes of Arthur on his palm and made young girls feel their smooth skin!! I told him he must have been trying to impress the girls then but he was one up on me by saying, "Oh what do you have to fear about. You have more snakes in India than we do." Sigh, yes but we had none as pets!