Stefaan and I were very different, I did gymnastics, he played soccer, I wore jeans and T-shirts, he wore basketball shorts and muscle shirts. There was one thing, however, that brought us close together and that was nature. We both had a burning passion to scavenge a creek bed or kayak Lady Bird Lake. We also both loved Reptiles. Living in Texas, they weren’t hard to find. In fact there was, as we saw it, one reptile that was the king of them all. Speedy. Speedy was black, brown, and gray. His whole body was covered in spiky scales all pointing down towards his tail. The scales on his back were checkered black and brown. His head and tail were completely gray. His eyes were yellow and intimidating. He had powerful legs with four large claws on each. He was fast and evasive. It was actually a species known as the Texas Spiny Lizard but we didn’t know that at the time. We liked to believe that there was only one speedy and our parents went along with it. He was a ferocious, fast and armored lizard so naturally, we wanted to catch it.

One afternoon I went over to Stefaan’s house to hang out. We ended up outside like usual. I don’t even think we were playing a game, we were just walking around and talking about how some of the stones in his garden wall were limestone and how some were unknown to me. Suddenly, I heard the unmistakable scratching of a lizard running down a tree. I slowly turned my head and met the stare of Speedy. He had run down the side of one of the live oaks and was sitting completely still hoping his camouflage would do the trick. “Stefaan”, I said in a quiet shaky voice, “Stefaan, look.”

“Speedy.” he exhaled.
“What do we do?”
“Follow me.”
We both edged around the tree and made a break for the house. We bolted through the back door yelling, “Dad, we found Speedy!”
“C’mon we gotta hurry if we wanna catch him!”
“Coming!” he exclaimed

Quickly, Stefaan’s dad, slammed his computer closed, leapt up from the couch, and ran to the kitchen cabinet to grab a large shallow metal salad bowl. All three of us went bolting out the back door, but stopped short when we noticed Speedy was missing from the tree. “Where’d he go?,” I asked.

“There he is!”

He’s making a break for the front yard!”

“I’ll get him” said Victor.

Victor, still holding the bowl, edged forwards getting closer to the lizard and we edged behind him. When he was about five feet away, he threw the bowl. We watched the bowl glide through the air and land right on top of Speedy. We celebrated.

“YES!!!”
“We Did It!”
“Stefaan we caught speedy!”

A few minutes later Speedy was in the mesh reptile cage Stefaan’s parents got him for his birthday a couple years ago. We sat in the patio chairs watching him climb up on the sides of the cage and stare at us.

“Now what?” I asked
“Well I mean we caught him.”
“Yeah I know but now I’ve seen him…. He’s cool...”
“Yeah…”

“Hey Stefaan, you know those nets you have in your garage?

“Yeah?”

“I saw this TV show where they swept nets across bushes and found cool bugs in them.”
“Hey your house has some pretty cool bushes. You know the blue ones?”
“Yeah let’s grab the nets and run across the street.”

Speedy watched with his tiny yellow eyes as we walked away leaving him trapped in his cage. I can only imagine his thoughts were something along the lines of: oh s***. Speedy’s catch would be only one of the many victorious catches to come: The Tarantula, The Anole (green lizard), and Milky The Milk Snake.