Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Mia and the Spider

Back in the olden days I worked with Mia at the Store. The Store occupied the ground floor and the basement of a Victorian building, and we worked in the basement. The landlord wasn't big on building maintenance and the basement was damp and creaky. Spiders loved it. There were days when we had more spiders than customers!
I loved working with Mia. She was always upbeat, funny and chatty. "Wanna hear something wacky?" initiated many interesting conversations. She always brightened up the day.
Mia hated spiders, which was hard for her because the spiders were rather industrious and popped up overnight. Most were just the harmless "daddy long legs" house spiders, the most meek and inoffensive of spiders. I can recall hearing "Ew, ew, EW!" as Mia dusted or straightened and knew she'd encountered another spider.
One day Mia was cleaning out a cabinet, an old Victorian cabinet with drawers...and found a dead spider. "Ew, ew, EW!" I can't remember what I was doing but I suggested she just shake the drawer upside down and it would fall out and I would sweep it up, so that's what she did. The spider fell apart, as dried up daddy long legs tend to do! I'll never forget what happened next. Mia picked up one of the spider legs, held it up and looked at it and said "THIS?? THIS is what I've been afraid of???? Oh. My, God!!!".

May all your fears be spider legs.

My learners drivers license came in the mail yesterday.

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