Monday, June 30, 2014

Company

Last night when I was about to brush my teeth, a spider scurried across the bathroom floor and up the wall, all very quickly, planting himself underneath the sink to the left of the piping. Though I was feeling brave having just nabbed a mosquito with a small crinkle of toilet paper, I backed out of the bathroom and assumed a position a few feet beyond the door, keeping my eyes fixed on this new sighting. The spider was bigger than I would have preferred: his body around the size of a quarter and each of his eight legs appeared around an inch. Emily was on the phone, so I waited for her to get off (I think a sign of maturity) before requesting her back-up.

Me: Emily, there's a spider in the bathroom.

Emily, approaching: oh a wall spider, they're okay.

Emily, having approached: Hm. That one is pretty big. Let's take a picture on your phone and ask the watchman.

This was a good idea. The watchman had arrived early and had presented us with a large bag of limes.

We/Emily bravely took the shot, and then I continued to observe the unflinching beast while Emily went to query our protector outside.

Emily, overheard by me: hi, we have a question. This spider. Do you recognize it? Is it a dangerous one?

Watchman, overheard by me: Oh yes. This is a very dangerous one.

Emily: is it poisonous? Do they bite?

Watchman: Oh yes. Very poisonous.

At that, Emily reentered the scene, instructing me to back away which I already had.

Me: So what do we do now? Can the watchman come here and help?

The next thing I knew the watchman was in our hallway, then our bathroom, then face to face with the monster. It all happened rather quickly, but with a series of movements that involved both foot and hand swatting, the watchman destroyed the spider. It was kind of dramatic.

Me: Are you sure it's dead?

Emily and I had hopped away laughing/freaking during the feud but were now creeping back to survey the damage.

The watchman pointed to 3 V shapes on the floor,

Watchman: These are his legs, he is dead.

With that, we thanked our watchman profusely, quickly got ready for bed, and retired to under our mosquito nets, fully appreciating this barrier between the company in the night.

No comments:

Post a Comment