It was Monday afternoon, after the rain had poured heavily down the earth of Ubud. I was sitting before the big bar table with five year-old Ruth in my lap in Warung Sanje, our favorite place to talk and drink beers. Ruth, as always, was playing "magic trick" with me (where she wants me to think that she can make my lighter disappear which I know very well that she hides it in under the table mat). When she was about to make my lighter appeared, her small hand tried to reach the box of spices while her other hand touched the side of the table. Suddenly she screamed and showed me her little finger with painful expression in her face. I asked her, "Are you ok, Ruthie?"
"Something bites me, it hurts," she said, almost ready to cry. I looked at her small finger, it turned pink, but I saw no blood or cut.
"Are you sure?" I asked her again. She nodded, "Yes, it's under this table!"
I thought, she might get a cut from the wood, but it didn't really cut her, so I didn't think it was going to be a problem.
"It's gonna be ok," I said. But she insisted that there was something under the table that bit her.
"Find it Ochie!" she begged. She lowered her head down to see what thing that bit her. I thought she just wanted attention, so I looked down but it was too dark to see. So I put my fingers under it, try to find the sharp wood which I thought had hurt her. But to my surprise, I touched something, it moved and went out from its hidden place, showing his scary tail.
"See? It bit me!" Ruth cried panically. I tried not to be panic seeing that animal crawling to the side of table. I poked Stephen who was sitting next to me, repeatedly.
"Lookit, a scorpion! A scorpion!" I shouted. The scorpion was now in the table, trying to decide where to escape. Everybody who was sitting around the table paused. Wekku, who's sitting in front of me, raised and tried to find it. Ruth didn't understand what a scorpion is, she sat there in my lap, ready to cry.
"It's a baby scorpion!" Wekku said, rather excited than scared.
"It was here, under the table, and Ruth said it has bitten her!" I tried to make them aware how bad the situation is. Morgan, Ruth's dad, stood and ran to us. Then he and Stephen began to examine Ruth's finger.
In the meantime, Wekku was trying to catch this poisonous creature, but it kept jumping and running. Finally he trapped it in a plastic and found it already dead. I was relief!
"Is Ruth ok?" I asked them. Stephen nodded, "Yes, I don't think it bit her, we didn't see any cut or blood, maybe it pinched her, but it's not dangerous."
I was relief again. Ruth cried for a bit but then she got all the attention from all the dudes and her mom. She didn't want to sit in that chair anymore so she asked me to move and sat with her far far from the CSI. I was still shocked. The baby scorpion became a buzz news that day. Ruth told everyone who came after. She got many attention and suggestion.
I looked at her and before I move to another chair, I said to Stephen,
"See, I never like this chair."
The next morning, when birds were chirping, Miu Miu was playing in the garden, I was there too, enjoying the morning by standing in the porch, ready to give Stephen a hand with his "picnic table-project" when I saw Yan Srik, our maid, walked suspiciously into the house. She had broom in her hand and weird expression in her face. I followed her to the house and saw she was poking the window ventilation.
"Something's wrong,
Mbak?" I asked her. She looked at me and nodded, before she had the chance to answer me, something jumped so fast from the ventilation to the couch.
"What the hell was that?" I screamed. Without look at me, she answered, "A jumping frog."
"A jumping frog?" I screamed, "In the house?"
She nodded and ready to poke some more. I rushed to tell Stephen, "There's a jumping frog inside our house, I think it's already there for a night or more!"
Stephen stopped drilling and looked at me, "Jumping frog is poisonous. Is Yan Srik working on it?"
"Yes, she tries to poke it and lead it out," I explained.
"Oh, good," Stephen replied and then started to drill again. I expected him to be more responsive, but it seems to me that he's so into this drilling thing. So I rushed back to Yan Srik who was still busy struggling with the frog.
"It went down the couch," she said with her head under the couch. I stood behind her. "Make it go away, make it go away," I said panically.
The frog was annoyed with the poking things, it started to make weird sounds everytime Yan Srik poked it. "Becareful, Mbak. It's poisonous!" I warned her.
She was too busy to pay attention. She kept poking it and after 15 minutes trying, she finally succeeded in leading the frog to the door.
I ran away like a child, bugging her who was focusing on the jumping frog which was now already sitting in the porch, making an angry sound.
"Don't let her get away," I kept shouting as I closed the door to prevent to frog from jumping to the house again.
But the jumping frog was too fast, before we knew it, he disappeared into the green bush before the porch and it was useless to find it.
Yan Srik paused for awhile, then took the broom and started to do her jobs which was disturbed by the small incident. In the meantime, I stared at the green bush and promised myself to keep Miu Miu away from it for awhile.
