Shengliver’s Note: The teen writer, Miss Tao, gives a vivid description of their reaction to a creepy-crawly.

These days some special visitors have come to our dorm, unbidden.

Me included, there are 5 girls boarding in 6402. Every evening we chat while doing our pre-bedtime washing. The first visitor turned up on Wednesday evening. We were talking about our favourite pop stars when Juan suddenly started up, with one of her fingers pointing to a cup by the sink, screaming, “What’s that, girls?”

All of us tensed up, directing our eyes to the cup. It was a lovely blue cup, but an ugly little head was inching out from behind it. Slowly, very slowly, a long soft spotted body wriggled up. It was a caterpillar. The squirming fat guy made all of us scream in terror. Despite our dramatic reactions, the little guy kept its pace crawling forward. What a disgusting scene! Some of the girls were close to tears.

I got some water from the tap in a glass and washed the guy away with all my might. It was gone. Luckily the caterpillar had turned up only in the washroom. What reactions would it have evoked if it had wormed its way onto someone’s bed?

Since then, more wiggly-wriggly little guys, which I think are the first one’s brothers and sisters, have come to 6402 one after another. It seems that they have come to mourn the first uninvited visitor I disposed of. Hence, shrieks have been heard, time and time again, in our little living space.