My brother lived next to the airport in 2001. He said the most disconcerting thing about 9/11 was that the airspace was shut down the next three days. Airplanes didn’t shake his walls every few minutes. He didn’t realize how much he came to expect those regular noises.
I feel that way today. Our noisy natural disaster is over. The last cicada has gone back to ground. I came to depend on their rhythmic shrieks, the way the calls came in louder than ocean waves. It was restful.
It’s just the noise I’ll miss. I will not miss their substantial little bodies bouncing off mine on my way to the mailbox, or the stench of the dead ones that got caught in the garage, or the opportunistic ants that fed off the corpses.
This weekend if all goes well I will fill up a bin with all the weeds I haven’t pulled for over a month. Then I’ll knock the molted shells off the trees and burn them or something, nasty things.
This happens every 17 years? If I do live to be 78 I will have forgotten all this. I will be unprepared for the next generation.
2 responses to “Quiet”
Well, I can tell you where they are now. They’re here in DFW, lol! I got home from work and Dennis said “Walk outside and tell me what you hear.”. Of course I immediately thought of this blog entry and yes, they’re here. I actually like the sound, but if I have to dodge any that opinion is going to change big time!
Lisa – hoping they’re just the annual cicadas, not this crazy bunch that waited 17 years.