The "Accident"

Perception is a funny thing isn't it?

Last night we had what could be described as an "incident" or as Astrid would later call it an "accident". 

Just as Linus and Astrid were going to bed we discovered that Linus's favourite toy (a snow leopard, called LinKitty) had been left outside after their earlier adventures. So I went out to fetch him and then tossed him to Linus's welcoming arms in his bed. I then went to settle Astrid down.

Suddenly Linus sprang 2 metres in the air and out of his bed. He stood in the middle of the room pointing a shaking finger at his bed, "S...S...Slug!" he whimpered.

Astrid sat bolt upright.

"What did he say?"

I knew where this was heading and time was of the essence, "Oh, nothing, never mind" said I promptly ushering the trembling Linus out of the room before he could divulge any more details. "Go talk to your dad in the lounge".

"He said, S...S...Slug, didn't he?"

Then the screaming started.

We're talking blood curdling, incessant, horror flick style screaming here. There were pauses just long enough for her to draw breath and then it would continue with renewed gusto. I bundled her up and whisked her away from the bedroom of "horror" to the Historian who was sitting with Linus trying to get him to explain through his stuttering what was happening. 

Her hysterics started Linus screaming too, he had after all been the "injured" party. It had been on his ARM, he needed his ARM washed and disinfected immediately, it might have "laid spores!" ?

Louder and louder the screaming got as both children tried to climb on top of the Historian's head as though it was the only slug-free island in a slug-infested sea. Surely the neighbours would be calling the police by now but while we were trying to make calming noises it was hard to do so while laughing as hard as we were.

The offending creature was about 2cm long and trying to extremely slowly escape the scene,  it seemed to look grateful as I released it back into the "wild".

Astrid had never even actually seen it.

That's thing thing about perception, it's all how you look at it. Astrid loves little critters. She adores pill bugs and slaters for example, making little homes for them and taking them on picnics. To her they look like this:

But somehow she can't bring herself to see slugs like this: