I've been trying to write this story since last Wednesday, but I every time I think about it I get the heby-jebies. When I called my parents and told them about this gecko story, they thought it was one of thethe funniest thing they've ever heard so I knew I had to get over my heby-jebies and write this story. Be forewarned, this is a gecko story and I think geckos are gross, not cute like the Geico commercials.
As I previously told you, I returned home after a study session in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Lab Wednesday evening. I popped down on my bed while I was talking to my parents and I got the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. I looked up above my head (on top of my air conditioner) and I saw a white gecko staring at me. I slowly stood up and directly exited my apartment. I pounded on Farley's door and he kindly came to get the "little guy out." When we returned to my apartment, Farley chuckled at me as I left the lights and television on when I exited stage left. Our little gecko decided to take a stroll around the room and was sitting above the door frame to the balcony. Farley propped open the door with a chair and grabbed the broom. He knocked down the gecko, who safely landed on the chair. Rather than leaving the room quietly, the gecko decided that when he left, he would ceremoniously be escorted out of the building. After landing on the chair, he flew into the air, hopped on the fan, then scurried into the middle of the room before finding refuge in my closet. As he was moving, I was screaming and running into the bathroom and standing on the edge of the shower (as to not be standing on the floor, which clearly wasn't much help as the gecko can obviously FLY). Farley looked at me like I was from another planet and reminded me that running and screaming in fear, does not help the situation. I wanted to know what was going on, so I kept the bathroom door open--obviously another mistake. Farley, slowly and carefully with the precision of a vascular surgeon, examined every shoe in my closet until the feisty gecko reemerged. Now, this Gecko did not move toward either of the open doors that lead to the outside; nope, he picked door number 3 and headed into the bathroom with me. Obviously, I ran out of the apartment screaming, jumped across the apartment (remember my studio is only 288 sq feet, so I'm not as athletic as I sound). I ended up on the bed, with my feet moving in a running motion (fast feet!) and I was continuing to scream! Again, Farley reminded me to calm down because I was obviously not helping the situation. I continued my fearful stance (on the corner of the bed) and I saw him usher out the offending gecko. I was so relieved and thankful as I closed the balcony door, but before I closed the door a huge gush of wind came though the apartment. Honestly, I had so much sympathetic activation that the cool breeze felt good--sympathetics are the 'fight or flight' mechanism. I turned to walk back into the room to thank Farley when he said, 'watch out!' At this point, I noticed one of my shower caps (see picture below if you don't know what a shower cap is). I didn't think much of it because I figured that the shower cap had just be caught in the breeze before we shut the doors: I was wrong.
Since I was hiding on my bed away from the action, I didn't realize that Farley had tried to gently move this feisty gecko by lifting him out of the apartment with my shower cap. In the shower cap, the gecko became very afraid and did what geckos do: dropped his tail. I'm not sure of the scientific term for this, but the gecko leaves his tail, which flops like a fish out of water while the gecko runs the other way. Well, the gecko dropped his tail then sprung out of the shower cap as if he was spring loaded. At this point, the shower cap became loose in Farley's hand and the breeze carried it across the room to me. When he warned me, I looked down and there on my floor was a gecko's tail, rapidly flopping. Obviously, I jumped over floor and the tail onto my post at the bed from where I continued my rapid foot movement, and make squealing noises every time I saw the tail flopping in the corner of my eye.
Poor Farley. Not only did he have to outsmart this feisty gecko, he had to calm me down. I've known for years that geckos can do this, but I never expected to have a tail fly across my room in a shower cap! Interestingly, there was no blood or gecko fluids on the tail and it continued to flop around for probably 120 seconds--it felt like 20 minutes, but I'm sure it was closer to 2 minutes. It was a crazy night. I was so worked up, even though intellectually I knew the gecko couldn't hurt me. I was so frightened of this little, feisty gecko.
The moral of the story is that geckos are NOT as cute as Geico makes you believe.
Ok Nicole this is HILARIOUS. I was laughing out loud at work and had to cover my mouth! You are SO funny.
ReplyDeleteEveryone BUT me thinks this is funny. I can still see the tail flopping back and forth. I was going to take a picture of it but I was afraid the physical picture would haunt me forever!!
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