Word Count: 238
In the town where I grew up a lady gave birth to a spider though she’d always wanted a son. But a mother’s love overcomes our flaws and reaches beyond disappointments. She learned to diaper around all his legs and he learned to suckle without biting. As he grew strong and bold she made clothes out of two pairs of pants and two shirts, bought two pairs of shoes and four gloves.
The boy was a spider, skinny and quick. He’d appear out of nowhere in a place where he shouldn’t have been. In the dark hallway closet, behind a door, under your chair. He was quiet and smart and did very well in his studies. Well behaved but mischievous, he excelled in most sports, football being his favorite. He played quarterback in his senior year and his mom cheered him on with pride.
He left for college a year after I did and never came back, nor did I. From what I heard he became an accountant in some large city nearby. I ran into him once but he didn’t seem to remember me. Later I’d heard that he’d been crushed while crossing a sidewalk on his way to a bar.
Home is a webwork of safety. There the boy was well-known and well-liked. But his ways in the world outside the small center were not as readily accepted. Life is not as easy nor safe.
I could have told him that.
