The Praying mantis

I found the most miraculous bug the other day. I was walking around the parking lot at our apartments while talking on the phone late late late in the evening, and there it was, looking, yes looking up at me. Its triangle head pivoted from one side to the other, looking me up and down…eerily. It walked slowly across the concrete as if it were on the elliptical machine at the gym, gliding, just gliding. It was white too. Perhaps that is why it caught my attention so much. I had never seen a white praying mantis before. A white praying mantis looking me up and down, and gliding, just gliding.
“I’ll have to call you back,” I said, as I placed my hand in the little guy’s gliding path. He paused for a moment, tucking his long arms in like he was really going to say a prayer right then and there, and then stretched them both towards my hand.
Now, I have never been bitten or clawed by a praying mantis, but I have heard that it is really painful. Those lovely long praying arms that they have are also preying arms, you see, with jagged barbs on the inside that could claw a human hand, belonging to a girl, walking in a parking lot, late at night.
I held my breath and tried not to move suddenly. I was worried that those praying arms would become preying arms, but that didn’t happen. The little guy hopped on my hand as if he had been thumbing for a taxi the whole time. I walked as smoothly as if I had a teapot on my head, that’s how smooth I walked. I guess the guy was feeling a little confident, so he started gliding right up my arm. That was too much! I flung and reeled, and that pious little fellow got flung and reeled to ten feet away…back to the concrete.
I approached him again, worried that he’d not be so forgiving, and put my hand in his gliding path once more. He swiveled his little head towards me, looked deep into my soul with his dark, specky little eyes, and then glided right back to his spot on my hand.
I ditched the teapot and hopped on a paso fino insead. Also smooth, but faster. The white praying mantis, the paso fino, and I glided together to the nearest shrub where I gratefully deposited the devout little bug on a branch. With one final look at my unexpected friend, I left him to his own devices, either praying or preying…I am not sure, but I hope he is well.