The disappearing bat-frog

Whatever you do, don't look under your bed. I'm not sure yet whether this advice applies to all of India or just Goa.

Last night, I was getting ready for bed by flashlight when I heard a wet sort of splat behind me. I turned and saw a fist-sized shape on the floor that was clearly an animal. I couldn't tell if it was a bat or a frog or a ???, so I walked carefully across the room and flicked on the big light.

There was nothing on the floor anymore.

Well, I couldn't just crawl into bed after that, so I picked up my headlamp and shined it in all the corners. The frog/bat/what-have-you was gone. However, I could see some big ol' insect legs wrapped around one of the legs of my bed. Big ones. A spider? A roach?

I wouldn't be able to tell until I moved my bed and, once I did, I had no idea what else would come out of there. I was not brave enough to continue this investigation at night, so I turned off the light and went to sleep with my mosquito net tucked in extra tight.

In the fortifying light of day, I dared to look again. The legs were gone, but some other thing, some crawly wormish, centipedish, snakish thing is wriggling around under there even now as I type. I am not looking under my bed anymore. Hopefully the invisible bat-frog will take care of all of them.