Make Way for the Cicadas

But I was ready to brave life out of town, and Baltimore seemed nice enough when we got there. My husband had lived there for years while in yeshivah, so he gave me the grand tour, showing me where to buy groceries, how to find my way to shul, and how to get to the mall. Everything was fine.

But then, just a few weeks after Pesach, someone told me the cicadas were coming.

Cicadas?

I literally had no clue what cicadas were. When I asked my husband, he told me that a bunch of bugs would be popping up soon for a couple of days and there was certainly nothing to worry about.

Practically overnight, Baltimore was invaded by millions and millions of horrific, brown grasshopper-like bugs with creepy red eyes. They covered every available surface. You couldn’t walk anywhere without crunching on them, and they made the most horrific noise for hours on end. When you looked out the window, it seemed as if the leaves on the trees had all inexplicably turned brown, until you realized that what you were seeing wasn’t foliage at all.