Left: Previous picture of a friendly looking mukade obliging us with photo-op

Below: The text of the naive mukade observer of bygone days

At right you can see a mukade, or Japanese centipede who found a scrap we left behind. I thought he might be friendly and reached down to touch him but the Japanese people soon informed me that wasn't a good idea as if you are stung by a mukade you have to go the hospital.

Of course, all of this is changed now. Here is a synopsis of the events as they occurred on that fateful morn.

The lovely couple woke up from bed eager to make the most of the day. They bustled around the house cleaning up, putting away the futons, and getting the breakfast ready. At one point the dashing young man became aware that he was distracting his young wife from her work and decided to put his shirt on and cover that wonderful bod. It was then disaster struck.

After resuming his duties in the kitchen, like a good 21st century husband does, the victim noticed, or rather felt something a little odd in his shirt. Something slightly cold that seemed to be moving. Ever the hard worker he tried to put it out of is mind and continued slaving over the dishes. Then it squirmed again. This time the young man's mind turned to the cockroach that had been spotted in the apartment a few days earlier. In the end, the young man wished this had only been the case. Alas it was not. In alarm the victim stripped his shirt off and threw it to the floor. As part of a plan that could only be concocted by someone truly evil the next event unfolded. A writhing, black, evil mukade deserted the place he had been assigned, of course to scare the living daylights out of our unsuspecting hero, and ran for cover under the couch.

Knowing that if he had been bitten it would mean an emergency visit to the hospital the young victim surveyed the spot where the mukade only seconds ago had touched his bare skin. In the first bit of good news of the morning, there was no bite mark. Knowing he had to kill the mukade or perhaps be the victim of another bioterrorist attack the man pulled back the couch and found the suspect huddling next to the book, "A Shopping Guide for Buddhas in China". While the victim knew that if provoked the mukade can jump to a height of ten feet and then inject it's poison, the man didn't hesitate to take the empty case of the previous night's video and smash the mukade to kingdom come. There was blood everywhere (as you can see below) but victory was assured. To deter the next bioterrorist the relieved couple left the corpse of the deceased threat for all other terrorists (or mukades) to see. There has been no further incident in the ensuing hours and the couple have downgraded the alert to a tropical storm. Back to you Dan Rather!!