I used to like spiders...

and you can read about all of that here...

Today I have another story to tell...

Read on...

Its’ so cool in here!!

I could barely see the top of my young son Riel‘s head as he moved down into the opening, but I could hear him moving around and chattering in excitement.

I climbed through the dark green vegetation, along a narrow dirt path and around a some sharp grey rocks into a low cavern that was invisible from the outside and just only dented the surface of the ground. The cave was small, but large enough to accommodate the two of us, my little boy and I, and the roof of it just brushed the top of my head even though I was stooping. On the ground in front of me the warm afternoon sunlight reflected through openings in the tumbled rock and turf roof above, turning tufts of rich green midsummer grass translucent while others stirred slightly in the breeze.

Oooh this is amazing…

Now he was really burbling with excitement, his red hair flaming in the light, as he moved deeper to explore the further recess of the cavern.

Suddenly I saw him freeze.

Mom….Look!

Following the line of his finger I strained my eyes through the filtered light to see what he was pointing at, but could see nothing. As my eyes adjusted to the half light I could see, peering out from beneath a grassy outcrop about half way up, two gleaming chestnut sized eyes, glimmering with prick points of light flanked by fleshy mandibles, shining through a coat of silky brown hair, and 2, 4, 6...no 8 legs curled ever so neatly underneath its fleshy body. We looked with curiosity at the immense black brown spider who seemed relatively undisturbed by our presence.

My son was fascinated by the spider and unafraid he inched closer to have a better look. The spider recoiled only slightly, and I could see its beady eyes panning back and forth , but still it did not give any ground. I could also see deep beneath its body a bright red stinger hooked with a lethal black tip and on either side two immense spinnerets clicking and glistening and I could almost hear the air rasping in and out of the spiracles on its hairy black body, it was so very large.

With a flash of sudden perspiration that cooled my skin, the hair on my arms prickled so I could better feel the lightweight fabric of my hiking shirt skimming the backs of my shoulder blades and the hair on the back of my neck. I shrugged my shoulders and shivered as goose bumps ran the course of the skin across my chest pricking painfully.

We collectively held our breath as we examined the spider more closely, and he us.
I moved to the opposite side for a better look and as I turned my head to avoid some web hanging from the roof something tickle the skin on my leg. I jumped, realizing it was just a scratchy piece of grass, and brushed it off. Just as my glance skimmed the other side of the cave I realized that there was not just one of these immense creatures but two, for perched atop a ham sized rock was another slightly larger but identical version of the first.

Sweetie pie, I whispered Look there is another one!!

We both stood transfixed not wanting to frighten the spiders off. I was astonished that our nature hike should have proven so fruitful, yet felt torn. I wanted to stay and observe the spiders with Riel and at the same moment I both felt a visceral urge to flee, for as interesting as the insects were, they were also eerily large and frightening looking.

I leaned slightly forward resting my hands on my knees to get a better look and my son dropped to the ground to better study the other insect. We stayed quietly for a moment like that, enjoying the stillness of the insects and the cave. Suddenly something large and heavy drop onto my upper back.

Huuuuuuuuughhh,

I drew my breath in sharply and turned in the direction of my son where I could see sudden fear in his face as he looked past me to whatever it was perched on my back. My skin prickled wildly and I froze. I could feel something scratchy resting lightly the distance from my neck to my arms to the bottom of my shoulder blades with a heavier weight in the middle.

No one moved.

The goose bumps ran wildly over my body as I, in a split second considered my options.
Time suspended itself as it does in defining moments like these, hanging between light and dark, soundless, motionless, energy less, save the frantic kinetic energy expended by the brain to trying extract oneself from the inevitable. The camera in my mind circled the frozen scene in slow motion; my son on his knees gazing wildly up, the two smaller spiders watching emotionlessly from the sides, me stooped heavily over with my hair sticking to the dust and sweat on the side of my face and the sun streaming through the gaps in the roof onto my my rust colored hiking shirt and gleaming off the fat black body, hairy brown legs and needle like pincers of the spider with the lethal red stinger perched on my back intent on anesthetizing me forever…

I could feel the creature securing its grip more tightly around my back as its scythe like claws scraped my skin and I stood completely still, afraid of what would happen if I moved. Unsure how to react I could feel it still tightening its grip more, drawing its feet closer to one another to raise its heavy body higher off the plane of my back, lifting its hind end higher and poising itself to plunge its stinger full of venom deep into the fiber of my spine…

I gasped even more deeply now, completely paralyzed with fear, my son now white pale and covered in a slick of sweat. I could see the sides of his eyes, he was so transfixed by the apparition on my back …

Time stretched…. The silence in the cave boomed as the spider poised…

*And then I woke up…*