The Webs of Halloween

A tiny baby spider crawled on the carpet. It ran for shelter when I brought my vacuum cleaner to its vicinity. It was in the middle of the room. There was no way to go. Its tiny legs could not match the power of my vacuum. Seeing its struggle against the mighty suction of “Wind Tunnel” technology, I melted. I laid a paper towel in front of it. The spider climbed it. Few feet away was my dustbin. I dropped it in the can. There were plenty of bacteria particles, along with expired over the counter medicines as my previously disposed garbage. I imagined that this should be plenty (food) for the tiny spider to survive inside the garbage bin.

Few minutes later, I returned to the bin to accumulate disposables I have gathered during my regular cleaning. The baby spider was gone. Instead, there was a teenage spider, crawling against the walls of dustbin, scouting for food. It sensed my presence and immediately ran for cover. I dumped the additional dirt and continued on my weekend chores. I forgot to close the lid of the dustbin behind me.

An hour later, I returned to the kitchen. I had picked fresh tomatoes from my backyard garden. These will be the last bunch, I calculated in mind as fall ended the month of October. I segregated the tomatoes based on their size. My tomato plantation had mixed variety of tomatoes, curtsey Home Depot's early summer deals. Among the batch were tiny tomatoes, which could easily be misunderstood for berries. I stocked the tiniest ones in one corner as I dealt with space in the refrigerator for larger ones. Then I turned back and saw a tiny tomato moving on the floor!

Before I could grab the tomato from the floor, the tiny piece disappeared in the darkness behind my refrigerator. I was not satisfied. So, I reached for my torch light. My torch lit the darkness at the back of my refrigerator in concentric circles. The center most circle glittered the most and then glitter faded out as it moved to the outer circles. The light was dim, although, pristine enough for my twenty-twenty vision. My wrist moved to reveal the corners in the dark. I rotated it in the horizontal direction. No sign of my tiny tomato. I rotated it in the vertical direction. No sign of my tiny tomato. So, I started moving it diagonally. There it was – not far from my face – on the electric outlet – staring at me – an adult spider.

I could see tomato seeds on one of its legs. The thief was caught – red (tomato) handed. However, it did not run for cover. It stared at me as if that tiny fruit were a result of its hard labor. Could it be the same baby spider? This was not possible. I returned to the dustbin. I sprayed some light inside it. But no baby spider or teenager, could be located. I did realize that I had left the cover open. Again, my logic and science defied the possibility that this was the same spider. I moved on to arranging the precious reds in my old energy hog.

My attention to the spider returned, when I was alerted by the noise of a falling cutlery in the kitchen. I rushed to the scene. My costly bowl was lying on the floor, fragmented. The sweet pudding I had prepared was all over the floor. And there it was in another corner – a fully grown spider – fearless staring at me as if it were my fault that I stored the pudding in cutlery. It was all bathed white – evidence of pudding. Clearly, the culprit was accepting the crime, but also making a statement that the act was its birth right.

I had enough of the spider games. I picked up a shoe and flung at it. The creature could see shoe moving towards it similar to watching an object flying towards the audience in a 3D movie. It moved cleverly out of the harms way. Next, I picked up a broom and tired to brush it off to the floor. Again, it saw the broom hurling towards it as if in slow motion. It moved cleverly escaping the strike. I repeatedly tried to bring it down, and every time the spider escaped. So, I turned on the vacuum cleaner. The noise tortured it. The spider ran out of the corner into another dark corner. Failing to see in my visual range, I paused my action and started cleaning up the messy floor.

It was evening time. Outside was grayer due to rain. Inside, with one lamp turned on, I was working on a yoga pose, tiered from all the “hard” work. This particular pose was similar to Savasana (Corpse Pose). I literally went to sleep. When I opened eyes, I was facing towards my left. In front of me was a large spider web! I turned my head on my right side, there was another large spider web! I ran my eyes up above my head. On the wall – was the same spider ready to attack me!

It was clear. I had been marked as enemy. The spider was trying to mummify me in its web. I jumped up astonished by the valiant act of this little creature. The web it has woven was not enough to cover my foot. But, a war has been declared. I was staring at the spider, and the spider was staring at me. It was watching my move. I moved to my left. The spider followed my move. I moved to right. The spider moved the same.

The tiny creature was trying to put me in a corner. I could see it rubbing the first two legs against each other – similar to how humans rub their palms. Then it did. The spider spit on me – it was a thread like substance that almost reached me before gravity caught it and brought down to the floor. My baseball bat was in another room. My shoes farther away. I was in desperate need of a weapon. I had access to none. So I retreated.

The spider accosted towards me. The creature repeated the spit action. On every occasion, I survived the web attack. I backed up further until I hit a table in the corner. The spider again rubbed its legs as if telling me that it had me. Then it moved forward. I was shocked by the courage displayed by the tiny beast. It came closer. On the table was lying a “Glade air purifier”. The spider spit, and so did my purifier.

The spray engulfed the spider. It became unconscious for a moment. Then it woke up and ran. I knew this time I had him. Now, I followed spraying “Glade” sprays. The spider jumping from one wall to another – like Tarzan in the African jungle jumping from one tree to another.

My bathroom door was open, due to my earlier cleaning chore. The spider went in. I followed spraying the “Glade”. The trail of fresh linen scent followed me. I could see that it was struggling to make leaps. Then one final leap – the spider was aiming for a corner below my vanity. I attacked with another shot of my spray. The force blew it into the toilet seat. Seat was open, and it landed straight into the water. I could see it was not moving. I dropped in liquid bleach. I ascertained that the creature will not rise again, and flushed the spider into the sewage.

I took a sigh of relief. The air outside the bathroom was still flowing with linen scent. There were spider webs concentrated at one corner. As, I removed the webs of Halloween, I made my self a promise – no more benevolence towards spiders...