It was unlike any shell she had ever seen on the beaches. The delighted girl leaned over, her face near the object. Her lustrous eyes, wide with guileless curiosity, were scarcely an inch above the shining shell when she sensed that it was alive. She bent more closely, studying it intently. It was hard to make out in the shifting light, but from the front of the thing there emerged two antennae, like those she’d seen on crabs and lobsters, though smaller.

The shell shifted slightly in the leaves, and the antennae, thrust in her direction, seemed to be reaching up toward her eyes. She moved her head back quickly.

What kind of creature was under the pretty shell, Kim wondered. As she reached her fingers out to turn it over a sharp hiss issued from whatever it was. Her hand jerked away. Fear prickled her spine. “I just want to see,” the child murmured indignantly. “I’m not going to hurt you, you know!” She reached for the shell obstinately. This time something flashed out so quickly she hardly saw it. But she felt the sting, and tumbled away. Lying in the leaves, she stared at her hand and saw blood running along her finger.

Angry now, Kim crawled forward once more. The tarnation thing had dared to bite her! She bent to examine it again, but more cautiously now, ready to hop back if it pulled any more tricks. Then she realized that another “whatever-­it-­was” had appeared through the leaves. And another, and another. There were antennae waving all about, encircling her.

At once, the child was tingling with a primal fear. This wasn’t a game she liked! She started away, then decided to go back. She would take one of the things to show her parents, and put David in his place. She reached down determinedly with the hand that had not been stung.

When she lifted the thing into the ray of sunlight to observe it more closely, it seemed to go dead.

With her small fingers, Kim gently stroked the shiny shell, and saw the iridescent color came from the folded wings. This creature didn’t look like a beetle at all. It was—she couldn’t believe her eyes—a roach! She said it aloud: “Cock-­a-­roach!”

But so big!

Nobody in the world had ever seen a cock-­a-­roach this size! It was a giant! It was a cock-­a-­roach from the kitchen of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk!

Kim began to giggle as she made up a story about the strange bug climbing down the beanstalk and getting lost in the Yarkie woods.

She wondered why it was so still: Had she stunned it picking it up? Was it afraid of the sunlight? She knew that cock-­a-­roaches liked to stay in the dark cracks at home.