Hi ya, kids — your old pal, P.Ray here. I was walking in my garden the other day when I suddenly fell down! I asked myself, "What was THAT?"

I heard O'Donata say, "I don’t know, P.Ray, but there’s a lot of 'em — look!"

Then O'Donata and I noticed a bunch of small holes in the ground! I asked her, "So what do you think made these holes? Moles? Voles? Snakes? Bees? Little tiny sewer workers?"

She replied, "I don’t know…but I DO know it's starting to rain! I’ll see you tomorrow, P.Ray. Don’t fall in any more holes!"

As she flew off laughing, I said, "What do you take me for, a…WHOA! (yep — I had fallen in another hole)…clumsy mantis or something?"

The next morning I woke up and said to myself, "That rain last night really put me to sleep. Maybe a nice bowl of whiteflies will wake me up. I’ll just head on over to…whooooofff! What is this big thing I just ran into?!?"

O'Donata flew in, saw me laying on the ground, and started singing,
"P.Ray Mantis falling down,
Falling down, falling down;
P.Ray Mantis falling down,
My poor mantis!"

I looked up at her and said, "Don’t you have mosquitoes to eat or something?" Then I noticed the big mud tubes all around me! "Yow! O'Donata, what are THESE?!?!"

She replied, "I’ve heard that termites make tubes out of mud, P.Ray…"

And the tubes suddenly yelled, "Not termites!"

I walked over and stuck my head down into a tube. "Well, what ARE you then? Something just as tasty as termites, I hope?"

The tube answered, "We’re singers. MAGIC singers! We built these tubes so we wouldn’t drown in the rain."

I said, "Magic, huh? Well, I bet I can make you magically disappear!"

But the tube pleaded, "Oh, please don’t eat us, Mr. Mantis! If you agree, we’ll perform a magic trick for you, AND sing you a song!"

I looked up at O'Donata and said, "It must be singing day in the Paper Garden!" Then I told the tube dweller, "OK, it’s a deal. I was looking forward to a potato beetle brunch anyway. So, when’s the magic show?"

All the tubes answered my question at once. "Tonight at sunset!"

That night a bunch of my friends and I were in the audience, ready for the performance. We all started chanting, "We want the show! We want the show!"

Just then a big brown bug started coming out of each hole in the ground! I said, "Wow — there must be a million of 'em!"

O'Donata agreed, and said "What a show! Bravo!"

I told the brown bugs, "Well, you guys were right — that was quite a trick!"

They all answered, "You haven't seen ANYTHING yet!" and climbed into a big tree.

I asked, "You mean you have a BETTER trick?"

Then I noticed one bug suddenly split open along his back! I said to him, "Oh, you poor thing! I’ll go get some Bugtine and Bug Band-Aids!"

But just then a white bug stuck his head out of the brown shell and said "Boo!"

I was so surprised, I yelled "Yow!" and jumped up into O'Donata's arms.

The white bug wiggled out of his shell and asked, "How’s THAT for a trick?"

Everyone in the audience just looked at him in amazement, then O'Donata dropped me and we all started clapping like crazy.

The bug said, "Thank you! Thank you! We’re periodical cicadas, and we're thrilled to be here. People sometimes call us '17 year locusts,' but that’s a mistake. Some of us live underground for 13 years and some for 17. The tricks we perform when we emerge from the ground are so cool that our scientific name is Magicicada. But I promised you music — just wait till you hear our great men's singing group, Brood X!"

All the cicadas in the tree said, "Just give us a few days to get ready. We need to practice, and our exoskeletons need time to harden!"

A few days later, at sunrise, my friends and I were in the audience again, awaiting a great concert. A big black cicada flew in and said, "Ladies, gentlemen, and arachnids! Nymphs, larvae, and instars of all ages! I proudly present to you — performing again after a 17 year absence — Brood X!"

Then we all saw hundreds of red eyes in the tree, and heard an amazing, powerful insect song! O'Donata yelled to me, "Wow — they’re LOUD!"

I yelled back, "What?!?!"

Later, after the show, I was talking with the cicada. "Well, you sure lived up to your end of the deal. That was quite a trick, and a great concert too! When’s the next performance?"

He said, "We’ll be appearing here all week, then our females will lay their eggs and those kids will stage the next big tour."

I asked, "And when will that be?" But he didn't answer — he just flew off into the trees.

I said to myself, "Huh! That was rude. Maybe I should have eaten him after all!" Then I saw a sign, and moved closer to read it. It had this message: DON’T MISS THE NEXT BIG BROOD X SHOW COMING SOON, IN THE YEAR 2021!

I said to myself, "Darn. I was hoping for next week!"

THE END

GLOSSARY WORDS:

Vole: A small rodent that looks like a fat mouse or rat. Sometimes voles damage farmers' crops.

Exoskeleton: A hard supportive or protective structure on the outside of the body. Some types of insects, spiders, and crustaceans have exoskeletons.

Instar: A stage in the life of an insect, spider, or crustacean when the creature is between two molts. (A molt is when the creature sheds its exoskeleton, or outer layer.)


Text, Exoskeletal Mike McGrath
Illustrations, Yasushi Fujimoto
Animation, Glenn Hughes