"Cockroach Staring on the Highway"

"Hey Buddy!"

"Cockroach Staring on the Highway"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

So there I was minding my own business. Speeding through the NLEX on my way to Manila when on the corner of my right eye I spied something horrible.

And there perched on the car window was a cockroach the size of my thumb.Normally I am not afraid of these bugs and at home I am the designated Cockroach hitman( more like designated squasher because my method of murder is usually a swift slipper strike). In this particular situation however I was in the middle of a highway that had cars passing me left and right at 120 kph. I wasn't going on the slow lane either and this particular cockroach was eyeing me as if it was about to launch itself into flight. Instead of waiting for that inevitable cockroach kiss to the face I took some action to rid myself of this menace. I slowly opened the power window.

It was a mere arm length away from me and it seemed to look at the open window and then at me. "I know what you are trying to pull buddy." it seemed to say and then it held on fast to the window. So much for the hopes that it would just fly off. If I were a cockroach I wouldn't fly out of a speeding car in the middle of a highway too.

So I had no choice. I had to stop , pressed the hazard lights button and looked for something to smash the critter with so that I could deal with it permanently. The only thing I found was a pile of receipts on the car floor. After rolling it into something resembling a small , hard bat , I decided to make my move. One quick strike and it would be dead. A truck behind me blew its horn. I missed. The Cockroach skittered down to the passenger seat , to disappear inside the car. I couldn't stay long because I was still in the highway system.

The cockroach escaped and remains at large. Hopefully it doesn't decide to make an appearance when my wife and daughter are with me or it would be a car full of hysterical screams.

I decided to put the bug out of my mind but every time I brush my leg into something in the car I get a little paranoid that I might see those insectoid eyes looking at me as if to say. "Gotcha!"