We arrived at the airport. It felt good to be in another city, although I wasn’t a huge fan of New York City. The smells, the people, the stink. I dreaded walking through the terminal and not just there but in every city. I hated the bathrooms, the roach-infested restaurants and prying hands. But the same things that I hated, I loved. I loved the strange characters I met, the strange food I tasted and the feel of human connection. I made my way through the maze of faces and walked to my hotel room. For tonight, sleep, a bath, a phone call to my sister and the fading sound of airplanes. Though, I wasn’t religious, I signed the Cross across my chest. My sister, Rachel, was always trying to get me back into church. But I wasn’t ready. I prayed only when I was about to throw-up and not even then. But that night, she called with a sense of urgency in her voice.

“I just had to call you. Are you all right?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m in my hotel room. Can’t really sleep so the water is running in the bathtub and this whiny television reporter is flapping her mouth about some stupid story. Now, I know you are always worried about me. Worried about tomorrow. Worried about world hunger or another church being converted into a private home but don’t worry about me. The door is locked and Marlo is right across the hall. Can’t you smell the hoagie?” I said.

“Marlo is a saint. She’ll listen to me. Sis, I just got a revelation. Grandma came to visit me in a dream. She said that I have to protect you and I gave her my word but I can’t do anything else without your salvation. Now, in Psalm . . .,” I put the phone down. I needed to turn off the water in the bathroom. The bathtub was almost full. I went back to the phone. My sister was still reading from the Bible but I was not interested in what she had to say so I quietly hung up the phone, giggled and took my bath.

I heard the phone ring twice while I was taking my bath and once when I was dressing, I took the phone off the hook and fell asleep. The next day, well, it was early in the morning, I woke up. I felt a slight breeze in the room and the slight murmur of voices comeing from the room next door. I moved the bed and a giant, brown, waterbug crawled across the wall. It was almost the size of my head.