Yesterday evening, I saw a spider in my fridge. Was I imagining it? Had I lost my mind? Why was there a spider in my fridge? I didn’t have my phone in my hand with the camera open and ready to take a picture, so there is no photographic evidence of this strange phenomenon. Even if I had a photo of it, who’s to say it was mine? Who’s to say it’s an actual picture of the unwanted intruder? I don’t have the know-how to fake a picture, but I know it can done.
Did I scream? No, I no longer scream when I see a spider. I’m not particularly fond of them, but I’m not scared of them. Many, many years ago, I felt something underneath my hand while opening the door of a storage unit. That something turned out to be a huge wolf spider. I didn’t scream in fear, but I yelled at the spider. And then I smashed it with my hand. It really wasn’t very big once I had smashed it.
Then there was Legs, the spider that crawled inside my ear one morning while I was walking the dogs. He obviously wasn’t very large, but he sure did move a lot. Have you ever felt a spider moving around inside your ear? Trust me, it’s not an experience you want to have. Legs crawled out of my ear that evening, and believe it or not, he was still alive and he lived about another month or so. How do I know this? My daughter kept him as a pet until he died.
Another spider built a web across my road that I walk my dogs on. I admit that I did scream a little when I managed to stop just before walking into that huge web still wet with the morning dew. Its weaver was sitting right in the middle of his magnificent creation, and I was looking right into his eyes, my nose almost touching him. So what did I do? I found a stick and knocked the web down. Did the spider survive? That I don’t know.
This spider I’m so sure I saw yesterday morning was sitting nonchalantly on the bar that runs along the top of my fridge on the inside of the door with the temperature controls on one side and Frigidaire written on the other. I opened the door to get something, but what it was fled my mind as I stared in surprise at the unwelcome visitor. He (or she) just sat there and was probably annoyed that his counting of how many eggs I had was interrupted. Or was he making notes of the different ways to get into or escape from this particular appliance?
This medium-sized light-brown spider was probably just as shocked as I was. If he was really there, that is. I yelled for my better half to come and see this unusual thing, but the moment I yelled, the interloper scurried off and disappeared. He ran between the edge of the bar and the inside wall of the refrigerator. I’ve heard that spiders can squeeze through amazingly small spaces, but how could anything fit through that small of a space?
What if this spider had spoken to me? Would I have passed out? Probably. Or would I have been so amazed that I spoke back to him? Would we have had a conversation about why he was in my fridge? Would he have been honest with me? What if I kept my phone ready to record video and sound at any time, and I managed to record our conversation? What if I had him on film talking to me?
Now every time I open my refrigerator, I’m going to wonder just what this spider is doing. Of course, let’s be sensible, he won’t be able to survive in there for very long. Or will he? Just who is he in the world of spiders? Could he be a scientist who has discovered a way for spiders to survive for long periods of time in colder temps? It would have been more shocking to find a live spider in one of my freezers, but who knows? Maybe that will be next.
Or maybe he is an explorer sent on a trip to investigate my kitchen and all its appliances, and I just happened to spot him in my fridge.
Could he have been sent to discover all the places where my six indoor cats won’t bother a spider?
Does his web of spiders have a plan to take over my house? Is my refrigerator their first conquest? Or do they have their sights set on my town? Do all the houses in my town have an unwelcome spider in their fridge?
Did these four different spiders have anything in common besides running into me? Had they all been members of the same web of spiders attempting to conquer my house, then my town, and then the world? In their world of spiders, have legends about these heroes and their encounters with me been written?
Do you think I really saw a spider in my fridge? If so, what do you think he was doing there?
