Mandatory Debugging

Maizy woke up, full of energy, ready to tear through every book in sight!

Ah, it's night time.  She thought, as she crawled out of Mom's pouch and noticed the darkened interior of the Proscribrary.

She turned around to look at Mom, whose chest was gently rising and falling, thinking, I'll let her sleep.  Which, coincidentally, was the title of a book Mom would soon write: I'll Let Her Sleep, and Other Horrors of Motherhood.  Probably. Maybe.

What should I do? Maizy excitedly pondered her options as she hopped out of the... sleeping tube. I need to ask Mom what that sleeping thing is called, she thought, as she noticed that the Proscribrary looked different: Nearly half the books were missing!

Must be the stuff Mom doesn't want me reading. Clever, Mom, clever. she grinned, thinking, They're in here somewhere, and I'll find them eventually. Muwahaha!

I guess the rest of this stuff is OK for me to read? She considered, Must be BORING then.  She rolled her eyes, then took a look at what was left on the shelves.  Looks like it's mostly stuff in the sections labeled, 'Probably Fiction', 'Hopefully Fiction', 'Frowned Upon', and 'Good Luck'.

Maizy was puzzled, Who would label their library sections like that‽ She then looked at the labels on the empty rows where she saw, "Taboo", "Unthinkable", "Illegal", "Disapproved", and one shelf labeled, "Cannot Be Unknown."

Then a large book with pictures of animals on the cover caught her eye: Goh Slip Bestiary.  Ooh! A bestiary! It might have information about that snake I killed!

It lay on the floor, right out in the open.  Mom must've left this one out for me. Thanks, Mom!

Maizy ran up to the book, flipped it open, and several cicadas waiting inside its hollowed-out interior immediately began buzzing, loudly.

It's a trap! 'Goh Slip'? Go to sleep. I'm such an idiot!

The cicadas noticed Maizy a moment later and tried to flee. They flapped upwards in random directions. Maizy's instincts took over, and she lost control of herself, handing her consciousness over to hunting mode.

She caught one immediately, and it made a loud "CRUNCH!" as she bit down.  Not bad! she thought, then she noticed Mom looking down at her from the sleeping tube with a huge grin on her face. Then Mom fell over on her side and started cackling.

She's laughing at me!  Maizy thought. But she didn't have time to get mad—another cicada had caught her eye, and she immediately began chasing after it.

"Hah! Ahahahaha! I knew you'd fall for it!" Mom laughed uncontrollably as Maizy chased the cicadas around the room.

Ooh, she's clever! So clever!  Maizy thought, as her debugging instincts took over.

Eventually, Mom stopped laughing and lazily let her head hang off the edge of the tube, watching Maizy with a big grin, upside down.

"I put several different types of cicadas in that book, ya know," Mom said, watching Maizy climb the wall for a better hunting perch. "They all move at different speeds, making some of them really hard to catch!"

Maizy leapt from a shelf at one that was slowly buzzing its way across the room, catching it with another loud "CRUNCH!"

"Think of this like mandatory Debugger family training," she said. "Your grandmother made me and my sister do this EVERY NIGHT." She seemed to give an involuntary shudder at the memory, then continued, "When there's only one left, I'll let you read a book.  If you can stop yourself from hunting it." She said the last part with a sinister smile.

She finished, "Because you'll never catch it. It's a circling cicada, and the only way to catch them is with traps, not hunting. They're too quick."

Maizy crawled across the ceiling, eyes fixed on a particular light box. She was sure there was a cicada hiding behind it—she’d glimpsed it right after grabbing the last one.

Mom rolled upright and suddenly watched Maizy with deep interest. That's a mountain cicada—probably beyond her capabilities at this age. Its movements are too unpredictable, she thought to herself.

Maizy then knocked on the light box, causing the cicada to take flight. She leapt into the air to catch it. "CRUNCH!"

"WOW! Nice catch!" Mom was actually impressed.

As Maizy very ungracefully spun around and fell to the floor with the mountain cicada in her mouth, a large black cicada landed on the opposite wall. It spun itself around in a circle and then started buzzing.

"Last one!" Mom shouted. "See if you can stop yourself from hunting and come up here instead."

Maizy didn't seem to be listening and began creeping towards the circling cicada.

"I'm telling you, they're impossible to catch," Mom stated. "Fight that instinct and come here!"

Maizy crept closer and closer, then leapt at the wall! The cicada saw her coming and easily avoided capture. Maizy didn't give up, however and immediately began the chase.

She's probably too young.  Mom thought, Well, at least she'll expend all her energy. Then we can both go back to sleep.  Then she thought about it for a moment, Mom really did have some genius parenting ideas.

Maizy ran across the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling trying to catch that bug—but failed. Consistently. Eventually, she ran out of energy and just lay down with her back on the floor, breathing heavily.

Mom jumped down from the shelf and walked up to Maizy. "It's OK. Getting control of your instincts is really hard!"

All tired out, Maizy lazily reached up with her hands and made the signs for "why," "can't," and "I."

"I think you're just too young, sweetgum." Mom smiled warmly at her little kaydee. "Just like you're now smelling for my pouch, trying to find your safe sleeping space."

Maizy knew that Mom was right. That's exactly what she was doing.

These instincts! They're going to kill me!

After catching her breath, Maizy crawled up into Mom's pouch. Mom then jumped back up into the sleeping tube.

As Mom lay down, she smiled as she noticed a faint blue light coming from her pouch. "Don't stay up too long, my little kaydee. We have another exciting day ahead of us tomorrow."