Today
Next to our workplace is a pretty cemetary. I went there today at lunch time because my bones were soaking in the cold of our AC.
I sat on the farthest-corner shaded bench and read my book for thirty minutes, until something tickled my hand. It was a pale green spider. I flung it to the ground. It cowered between the pebbles, maybe dead of shock. I went back to my reading. The weather was very nice.
My hand was sticky. Upon examination, my fingers proved to be enveloped in the beginnings of a spider web. The spider cringed as I shook and wiped at my hand – maybe because he was afraid, maybe because of disappointment, or maybe because the web string was still attached to his body. Or maybe he simply hadn’t finished dying yet.
As I walked back to our icy building, I had to think of the spider with amusement and admiration. He probably saw me as the biggest opportunity of his career. If I had just stayed still for a few hours or days longer, he never would have had to wait for food again.
