September 18 - Roach

All it takes is one. Just the sight of one cockroach and you can be sure your whole house is infested.
You pick up a box that's been sitting in the corner, and a cockroach scurries out from underneath it and runs right between your legs, but you're barefoot so you don't step on him. Instead you jump, you actually jump, because it shocks the hell out of you because you were absolutely not expecting to see a cockroach, because you don't have them, except you do, you have one, and it's running along the wall looking for a crack to escape into, and your eyes are jerking around the room looking for something--a book, a shoe, anything to kill the damn thing with but by the time you find something it's gone.
But if there's one there's more than one. And if there's more than one then God knows how many there really are, but you've got a good imagination, so the rest of the time you spend in this house should be a lot of fun. Just think of all the places they could be! The silverware drawer, under the fridge, in your shoes, under your kid's pillow, the sock drawer, your closet, the drain of your tub, just inside the bathroom faucet so when you turn it on the water forces it out into the sink where his slippery legs try to scramble up and out of the porcelain basin but it keeps slipping and sliding back down so you'll have to kill it right there, but with the awkward angle it's hard to give it a good solid whack with a shoe or something so you'll have to ball up some paper towels and smush it with your hand. The cupboards, the pantry. Hell, all over the kitchen. They can't get into open cereal boxes, can they? The bathroom. Stowing away in your bath towels, climbing over your family's toothbrushes while you sleep, hiding behind the toilet and waiting for you to let your guard down so they can scurry out and run across your bare feet.
Clean your house. A lot. Set some traps if it'll make you feel better. Call an exterminator. Eat standing up and burn any leftovers. Don't ever leave out anything edible. Don't let your guard down. And even still, don't doubt for a second that no matter what you do, no matter what measures you take, no matter how thorough your efforts are, your place is always going to be absolutely crawling with cockroaches. You may not see them, but they're there.
All it takes is one.