Creepy...
[First part of our chapter titled 'Cage' - where I fall in love with my first insect...]
‘When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you’
Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, sung by Cliff Edwards,
lyrics by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline
I wonder if the insect you’re about to meet wished upon a star to visit Bromyard in Herefordshire? Or had a longing for an English grown tomato? More likely had been sent on a mission by a cicada who – unbelievably – failed to get its message to us across.
It was the sound of cicadas that first greeted my ears when I’d arrived in France and – creepy crawly trigger alert – the feel of one which sped our departure…
Cicadas are very strange bugs, surprisingly unrelated to crickets and grasshoppers. According to WikiHow they ‘only make sounds to attract mates, their noises are often affectionately known as ‘love songs’.’
Ours close encounter didn’t involve any sound at all.
Cicadas’ symbolism is also associated with patience, their cycle is thirteen to seventeen years, most of it spent underground as a nymph before a very short three to five week life above ground. They are the noisiest members of the insect family. Wikihow also suggests seeing one that, ‘It might be a sign that you need to embrace change.’
That was probably true, but I was mighty reluctant to do so.
Clinging onto everything tea-related, Chris, who I’d nicknamed ‘Mr Darcy’ and I turned drinking tea and eating cake into a business endeavor.
I’d wished upon a star – way back in 2011 – to meet ‘my Mr Darcy’. Specific, and somewhat misguided, I’d made a wish list. ‘Be careful what you wish for’ never once echoed in my mind. One of the items read, ‘I would like to be spiritually his superior…’
I still blush now to think of the audacity and pretentiousness!
Of course, ‘The Universe’, having no sense of right or wrong, delivered to a fault. Chris was everything I’d asked for including being an atheist although he slowly leaned towards agnostic as our relationship deepened.
He wore god-like status with my mum who thought he’d be the perfect son-in-law, largely because he always offered to do the washing up.
As you know, I’d consumed the dregs of my first tea book being a financial failure. With Mr Darcy’s help, we were writing the first of ‘The Tea Trails’ encouraging visitors to Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire to sample its best tea rooms while taking in the sights. As you also know, this added new dregs to my cup.
Mr Darcy provided transport and bite-size historical fascinating facts. I supplied the poeticals and illustrated the cover. We decided to self-publish to make the most of the financial reward and won a small grant from the Jenny Lee Teas Project Fund.
But in retrospect, I’m not sure either of our hearts were entirely in it… My motivation making money and Chris keeping an eye out looking for his next acting or creative project.
It’s so easy to forget that our heart’s desires – however unconscious or denied – always override our mind’s wishes.
Tea and cake were too nice, too tame, too small and too local. La Combe had changed me… and the first insect to win my heart was about to urge ‘a new leap forward’.
But Chris and I had already recoiled from an encounter with a similarly looking, but entirely different nature.
Close your eyes and dream. Join us – briefly – in bed on our last night at La Combe. The guest in the interconnecting room has vacated. We have a private space to ourselves.
‘Stop it Chris’
‘What?’
‘Tickling me.’
‘I’m not…’ [pause]
‘Well, something…. Arghhhhh! There’s something in the bed! There’s something in the bed!’
The sheet was thrown off in an instant. Torch to the fore. Interspecies communicating instantly abandoned. We leap …
There, in the middle of the bed, is a massive green cicada.
Chris does the chivalrous thing and releases it. Any romance removes itself off the agenda.
And we have not learned to embrace change, although my next invitation is waiting.
#cicadas #wishes #arrogance