Tuesday, 11 November 2008

cleaning house & spider rescue

I was helping to clean our family home in preparation for visitors. Everything had obviously been neglected for some time. There were hessian sacks and sheets covering the floor. I pulled them up, revealing the floor beneath, and swept it clean. We weeded, polished, dusted and swept the entire space. Outside, I could see a beautiful courtyard that had brick paths bordering the area in a rectangular shape with a garden in the centre. I walked through the courtyard and climbed onto the roof of the open-walled shed at the back of the garden. I cleaned the roof and then thought I would climb back down by squeezing between the roof and the walls, so that I could collect some flowers for the house. As I was about to edge through the gap, I spied a large spider in its web just under the roof. I could see that it was idle but I felt a wave of anxiety rise within me. I decided to climb down the way I had climbed up but it had all changed. I couldn't find another way down and would have to wriggle through the gap next to the spider. I began to imagine how many more spiders there might be hiding under the shed roof amidst the foliage and my anxiety became unbearable. I lay down on the roof, my fingers feeling the cracks between the planks of wood and tried to call out. I could see my mother and father in the window back at the house. I called out again and again, trying to be heard, but my voice was just a whisper. Finally I managed some volume and both of my parents heard me. My father jumped out of the window and leapt through the air, crossing the entire courtyard without laying a foot on it, leaping an impossible distance onto the roof of the shed. I was amazed at the seemingly super-human power he had summoned in response to his daughter's distress.

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