The Cricket: A Cautionary Tale

About a week ago, Darrel was awakened by an alarm going off at 4 a.m.  He could hear it on the baby monitor we keep tuned in to the downstairs hallway so we can hear our two oldest kids in the night if they need us.  He got up to see what was going on (fire alarm?  CO2 monitor? stopwatch?) then stopped short in the kitchen, where it became apparent was the actual source of the sound he'd heard.  By then he was awake enough to discern that familiar rhythmic "chirp chirp chirp" of a cricket.  In the house?  How?  It sounded like it was coming from right where a Kleenex box usually sits.  Darrel doesn't like crickets.  Cautiously, he turned on the light expecting to find a big black insect sitting there ready to pounce.  Nothing.  He got a broom and started probing around, but the sound had stopped and he wasn't able to locate the creature that had been making it.

Fast forward to a few nights later.  Darrel and I were getting in bed around midnight and I heard it.  "Chirp chirp chirp".  Definitely too loud to be coming from outside.  I went into the kitchen and heard it in the same spot Darrel had before.  I turned on the light and Darrel came in, having heard it, too.  It continued and we started moving things off the counter expecting to find the cricket at any moment.  After a few minutes, we stood there staring at the bare counter wondering where in the world something like that could hide so quickly!  The chirping stopped and we decided to go to bed.  Darrel went downstairs to check on the kids and I was getting in bed when I heard that maddening sound again.  What?!!  I walked back into the kitchen.  This time it seemed to be coming right from our kitchen curtain.  I turned on the light.  Nothing. Darrel came up the stairs and looked, too.  We shook the curtain a little and the sound stopped. Slowly, carefully, we pulled the curtain out from the window to look on the backside where we were sure to find the culprit.  Again, nothing!  We figured he must be on the board to which the curtain was mounted.  It was the only possible place to be.  Darrel stood on the table to look. Nothing!  Then I said, "There's a little white bug there, but that's not a cricket."  Suddenly it dawned on Darrel, "It is a cricket!! I washed one of those down the driveway the other day. Look at it!"  So I got a jar and we put it in there and had a close look.  It was tiny and pale and somewhat leaner than I remember crickets being, but it certainly looked like a cricket.  We could hardly believe something that small had been making so much noise and managed to hide in the kitchen undetected for several days.  It blended in perfectly with our curtain, as you can see from the pictures below.  

The moral of this story?  I'm sure you could come up with several. In fact, feel free to share them.  But for us, we thought, "Don't assume that what you're looking for will be exactly what you're looking for!"