Into The Natural World

Nightcrawler Hunt

Kit came dashing onto the porch just as a spattering of drops turned into a downpour.
“That was close,” Kristi said.
He pulled a block of cheese and a bread knife out of an old bread-bag and set them on the card table next to a box of crackers. Crackers and cheese had always been part of rainy afternoons. Last summer the four of them had got in the habit of meeting on the porch of Margie’s old farmhouse to play games or cards or read books or comics. Margie didn’t mind and she sometimes made them lemonade.
A blinding flash, followed instantly by a breathtaking clap, and Margie’s whole house shook. The four of them sat stunned for a moment.
That was close,” Karen finally said.
“Everything’s getting wet,” Kit then said, and they pulled the card table, chairs, and a bin full of stuff away from the screens and up against the inside wall.
“You know what I’m thinking,” Kit said. “Tonight would be a good night for night crawler hunting.”
“The ground will be wet enough,” Kristi said. “I’m pretty sure of that.”
They looked out through the wet screens across the field, and it was raining so hard they couldn’t see the houses on the other side.
“Let’s go as soon as the rain stops,” Karen said.
“You can’t,” Kit said. “They don’t come out until dark.”
“That’s why they’re called night crawlers,” Kristi said.
“Bats and werewolves come out at night,” Keith said.
“I’m going to bring William,” Kit said.
“Scared of the dark without your big brother?” Keith asked.
“He knows a lot about bugs and stuff,” Kit said. “We’ll all need a flashlight and something to put the worms in if we catch any.”
“Worms are bugs?” Karen said.
“Kristi said, “there’s no such thing as werewolves.”
There was one more loud crash and then the storm rumbled away to the east. For the rest of the afternoon the kids sat there on the porch nibbling crackers and cheese, and discussing worms, and pretending to look at comics, and thinking about night crawler hunting.

~~~~~~~~~~

A light was blinking through the mist over in the direction of Margie’s house—three short flashes, then three long flashes, and then three short flashes.
“That will be Keith” Kristi said, “pretending he knows Morse code.”
“I hope nobody sees him,” Karen said.
When they got to Margie’s yard they saw that Keith was shining his flashlight through his fingers with his hand in front of his face pretending to be a goblin. Kit was ignoring him. William was just standing there. He was going to be a junior in high school, and even if you didn’t know him, you could be pretty sure he was a basketball player.
“The first thing we have to do is take our shoes off,” he said.
“Really,” Karen asked?
“Yes, because that way we’ll know when we’re stepping on worms. Plus, we can sneak up on them better. I think we should go over to the edge of Margie’s yard instead of in the field. They’re easier to find when the grass isn’t so tall.”
They walked across cold, wet grass, with a little mud squishing up between their toes. Every once in a while they felt something rough scrape out from under foot.
“Now everyone turn your lights off, stand still, don’t talk, and just listen.”
Everyone did. They heard a dog bark. They heard somebody laugh all the way across the lake. With no wind, it was quiet. But then they heard it—a scratchy, rustling sound—all around them, and it was pretty loud.
“What is it?” Kit and Karen whispered at the same time.
“Night crawlers,” William said. “Now here’s what we have to do.”
Just then Karen screamed. Everyone moved at once, and suddenly there was a clump of four little kids with one big one sticking up in the middle.
“What!” Kit asked.
“Something flew right by my head,” Karen said. “I could feel it almost touch my face.”
“Oh, it’s just a bat,” Will said. “They won’t hurt you. You should like them; they eat mosquitoes.”
“Let’s be quiet again,” Kristi said. “Shhh, everyone.”
They couldn’t see or hear the bats, but they could feel them flitting around. And they could hear the worms.
“What they do,” Will said, “is come up out of their burrows when it’s dark and wet. Usually they leave their tail in the hole, but kind of inch around in a circle.”
“Why,” Kit asked.
“Because they’re hungry. They’re looking for food, like leaves and stuff. When they find some they start to eat it, and before morning they drag what’s left down into their hole. “
“I thought they came up after it rained so they wouldn’t drown,” Kristi said.
“That, too,” Will said, “and to mate.”
“What’?” Karen asked. “Really?”
“Let’s catch some worms,” Will said. “You have to sneak up on them. They can hear you coming.”
“Worms have ears?” Karen said.
“Not really, but they can feel vibrations. When we walk around we probably sound like giants stomping—and watch this.”
Will tiptoed forward, with everyone tiptoeing alongside. He flicked on his flashlight and brought the beam slowly down to the ground.
“There’s one,” Keith said, pointing to a place just on the edge of the light.
“Look what happens when I shine my light right on it,” Will said.
He slowly moved the beam toward the worm, and when the light hit it, it disappeared in a blink.
“Worms have eyes?” Karen said.
“Not really,” Will said. “They can’t see, but they can feel the light, and they don’t like it. Light can kill them.”
“Light kills vampires,” Keith said.
Will bent over, sneaking forward, shading his flashlight with his hand. Spotting a big crawler in the dim light, he bent way down, and pounced!
“Got him!” he said. “ Now watch. Turn on your lights. See, you have to pull slow and steady or the worm will break in half.”
The kids spotlighted the night crawler as Will was pulling it out of its hole.  It stretched longer and longer, and finally popped free, and then wound and squirmed in Will’s hand.
“I thought worms were slippery,” Karen said. “How can they hold on so tight?”
“Here, feel it,” Will said, and he passed the worm around. It was a bit slimy, but also rough and sandpapery.
“They have little bristles sticking out of each segment and they use those to hold on and pull themselves through the earth.”
“Who cares if you break them?” Keith said. “They just grow a new piece.”
“Not exactly,” Will said. “If there’s enough segments left of the front part, where the mouth is, it can grow a new tail part. Otherwise it dies.”
“Would you like to be pulled in half?” Kristi said, shining her light on Keith.
Keith held his flashlight under his chin, shining it up and making what he thought was a scary face.
“Let’s go get some crawlers,” Will said.
And with that, five flashlights started bobbing around the yard.
“I got one!” Karen whispered loudly. But then, a moment later, “Oh, no, it got away!”
“I got a really, really big one,” Kit said, and he sounded like he was out of breath.
“Mine broke in half,” Keith wined.
“You’re actually kind of a worm, yourself.” Kristi whispered in his direction.
It didn’t take very long before the kids got the hang of it. Sneak up. Pounce. Pin the worm to the ground. S-l-o-w-l-y pull it out of its burrow. Drop it in a can.
Karen turned out to be the best catcher, until she fell face first on the soggy ground and got a mouth full of mud.
“Yuk,” she spluttered.
All the flashlights swung toward her as she sat there spitting and scraping blobs of turf off her nose and chin.
“Taste good?” Keith asked. “Worms like it.”
“We’d better stop now,” Will said.
“Why?” Kit asked.
“We’ve got plenty,” Will said. “Worms are important and we don’t want to kill too many.”
“But they’re fun to catch,” Keith said.
“Too bad,” Will said. “They’re good for the soil and the earth and all the other things that live here. They’re living creatures and they were here before people were.”
“We’re not really better than them,” Kristi said. “At least some of us aren’t.”
“Why don’t we let them loose,” Karen said.
“How about all the ones that aren’t broken or stretched too far?” Will suggested. “The rest we’ll keep for bait.”
“Tomorrow,” he continued, “I’ll help you set up a trotline and you can put it out over night and catch a mess of bullheads.”
“They’re delicious,” Karen said.
“Will you show us how to clean them?” Kit asked.
“I know how to do that,” Keith said.
“Good idea,” Kristi said. “That would be nice very nice of you, Will. Let’s go fishing tomorrow night.”