Roly Poly House — Caitlin Spinner
I have only ever built houses for roly-polies.
I wake in the blunt heat of Florida—lush trees, cotton clouds, pastel skies. The relentless sun invites bugs to burrow through the grassy lawn.
I love roly-polies; I play with them by the tree outside my house. At the roots of the oak, they crawl. I built them a house there, and I think they like it.
What do roly-polies think? Do they feel pain? They don’t have brains like ours—only a string of nerve ganglia down their bodies. They crawl across my palm as I admire their movements.
Other kids laugh when I talk about them. The sneers always sound the same:
“Bugs are gross—just like you.”
Roly-polies aren’t bugs anyway; they’re crustaceans, closer to lobsters and shrimp than beetles.
Other kids skip meals. They color on their lids with ‘eyeliner’—a tiny pen with a black tip—and say it makes them prettier.
If I do girl things—wear eyeliner, cage my stomach—will people like me the way the roly-polies like me?
Do roly-polies cry? I wish they could. I want someone to understand what it’s like to be different.
I wonder if roly-polies feel safe crawling on the ground with endless numbers of feet ready to stomp on them. They crawl around without committing any harm. Why does everyone crush what’s smaller than them?
I try to avoid the taunting. Dragging a half-hour smile across my face, straightening my hair with a hot clamp, and swallowing my lunch. It doesn’t matter—I’m still a weird kid.
Do roly-polies feel less afraid when they die? No one stomps on them there. Is there a crustacean heaven? I like to think there’s no stomping in crustacean heaven.
I don’t want to be a weird kid anymore. I want to be happy.
Do roly-polies know what happiness is?
I’m not sure.
Caitlin Spinner is a Junior in the Creative Writing Department at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. She previously was published in both the fourth and fifth editions of Alternate Routes. She works as the Junior Prose Editor for Elan Literary Magazine. She's also a student ambassador and member of clubs such as Literary Arts Honor Society (LAHS) and Spoken Word. She also participated in her school's annual showcase “Extravaganza” in 2025. She has a passion for history, politics, psychology and believes that influences her writing.