Spider Story

On a recent evening, I was lying in bed, working on my laptop, when a spider appeared from somewhere in the bed, crawled across the keyboard and up the screen. I was naturally a little upset.

It sat on top of the screen for quite a while. I began to have a rather companionable feeling for it. Until I remembered that at some point I would have to go to sleep. I don't kill spiders, but I do object to sharing the bed with them. I finally persuaded it to crawl off the laptop, and it headed for the floor. That seemed good enough.

A few nights later, as I was falling asleep, my cat brushed my arm with his whiskers. My first reaction was "SPIDER!" My conscious mind had forgotten all about the spider, but obviously some subconscious sentinel was still on the alert.