The other day we noticed a giant praying mantis clinging to the side of the car, maybe 5 inches long. I don’t know where he came from, I don’t remember seeing any praying mantises around the building. I tried to shoo him away with my coffee mug, but he just climbed onto the back window. I figured he would take off when we started driving, but he didn’t. He clung to the back window the entire way to drop Oliver off at day care.

Since he was right where the kids could see him, he was a big topic of conversation. We decided that perhaps he was a passenger on the “1-daddy-2 bus”, which is the route which serves daycare, Evie’s school, and my work (I happen to be the driver on said route). Evie had me announce the stops to him, in case he wanted to get off. I usually announce the stops inside the car, but she had me repeat it on the outside also (“This is the 1-daddy-2 bus. Next stop, school.”)

The main theories were that he was either, A) commuting to work on the bus, B) coming home from a night by our house, or C) moving, because as Evie put it, “bugs don’t have any furniture”.

I assumed he would leave while we were stopped at daycare, but he was still there when we got back (Evie ran ahead to check). I decided to leave him, figuring he’d blow off when we got on the highway. At his point we decided perhaps he was going to Evie’s school because it, “sounded like a nice place to live.”

By the time we got on the highway, we were pretty invested in the little guy. We had invented a little history for him: what he was up to, what kind of life he leads. Therefore, it was very disturbing when, rather than just letting go and flying away, he attempted to hang on for dear life. It looked very painful, and I fully expected it to kill him. His head was snapping around, his legs were twisted, and he tried to open his wings for stability which were quickly flipped inside out. It was awful. Here was our little buddy, dying painfully before our eyes.

“Pull over daddy and let him climb back on!” shouted Evie, quite distraught. I couldn’t blame her, I was thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, there’s not really a good place to pull over there. “I’m going over to the slow lane to drive as slow as I can!” I shouted back. That was all our buddy needed. Even through the rear-view mirror, I could see the look of resolve in his eyes. Slowly but surely he put got one leg at a time back onto the window. He straightened his wings. Then, just as the inspirational music began to swell, he fought the wind, using his front claws to pull himself over to the side where the wind wasn’t as bad, and hunkering down close to the car so he couldn’t be thrown off.

It was as inspirational a struggle as I’ve ever seen from a movie. Excuse us if there was a little bit of cheering, and/or cars being run off the road, since I was busy watching the mantis instead of the traffic.

Finally we pulled up in front of school and I asked Evie if she wanted to hold him in her hand and show him to her teachers. She was very excited about this. The mantis, on the other hand, was not. Perhaps a little grumpy from the rough ride, every time I tried to pick him up, he would launch himself at me, snapping and attacking with those signature claws. After a few tries, I managed to convince him to climb onto Evie’s lunch box.

She was triumphantly carrying the lunchbox into the school yard, when the mantis suddenly leaped off and flew away to hide in the garden. In order to prevent Evie from being disappointed that she didn’t get to show everybody the mantis, I said, “Hey, I guess he did want to get off at this stop!” Right away her grin was back, and she ran to tell her teachers about how we had brought a friend with us to live in the garden.

There has been a lot of speculation about our little buddy since then. We haven’t seen him, but as Evie points out, he’s good at hiding because he “smells like a leaf”.

We’ve also begun to wonder if the 1-daddy-2 bus is the only form of public transportation he uses. Perhaps he arrived at our house via the train? Who knows where he originated from?

In any case, he provided us with a little magic on what is normally a pretty dull task.