I was running late and quickly slipped on my hiking boot. "Oh great" I thought, "there's a chunk of dirt in my shoe." I hesitated wondering how much I cared and whether the extra 3 seconds it would take to remove my shoe and dump it out was really worth it.
Eh why not, I was already late. I took it off and flipped it over a few feet above the tile floor. What I saw took me completely by surprise.
"It's an intestinal worm! OMG I'm going to get intestinal worms" I irrationally thought knowing full well I couldn't get them through my feet.
The worm lay before me wriggling its tapered black body across the tile. "Baarritaaa! BARRITAA!" I shouted. I grabbed it with a square of toilet paper and marched to the kitchen. "Barita! What is this?! Is it a worm?!"
"No, that's a tail." What??
"But it's moving! It's alive!" I probably sounded like Dr. Frankenstein as I said that.
On closer inspection I realized she was right. Rested on my hand was a twitching lizard's tail, but where was its owner?
I rushed back to my room with Barita and inspected my shoe. The lizard was nowhere to be found.
"Ahh what if it's in my pants?!" I slammed the door and pulled them off, shaking them violently. Nope, no lizard. I changed my pants anyway.
The excitement was over and I changed into a different pair of shoes. At this point I was really late and I hastened my way to the dining room to collect my things.
"Those lizards are poisonous" said Barita.
"Oh great!"
"They live in the house but they don't pay the rent" she said chuckling.
Upon arriving at the office I felt compelled to tell Dorcas the reason I was late, "I'm sorry I'm late. There was a lizard in my shoe. I had to change."
"Exciting way to start off the week" she replied.
It turns out the lizards aren't actually poisonous. I told Dorcas anyway that if I "dropped dead" in the next hour she'd know why.