There were no jobs anywhere in the city. Two children waited for their mother in a small, air-conditioned room, their knees pressed together with cold. The eldest, Pauly, held a baby named Armando clasped to his torso. Armando’s limbs flailed against him in enraged protest. An elderly woman tsk-tsk ed them.
“Shush,” cautioned Pauly, but Armando preferred not to listen.
Their mother emerged, followed by an unctuous man in a blue suit. She filled out some forms on the high counter, shook the man’s hand and came over to take Armando. Pauly clasped her hand and they went out into the white sunlight. They stood in the street, licking teeth-stripping drips of lemon from a shared ice block. Their mother let Armando have the last morsel, even though his gummy bites sent most of it down into the dirt.
They took the bus back to their building, which had a hole in the side of it, crawling with builders. It had looked exciting upon arrival, but the smell of smoke lingered and often made Pauly feel sick. It was all their mother’s friend had been able to arrange. It was very hot inside. Their mother fetched her good fan from her room and let Pauly flap it at Armando while she prepared a bath.
Armando was in a homemade playpen, plopped, legs splayed, on the least dirty bit of carpet with his ratty toys scattered around him. Pauly lay on the only lounge chair and poked at a hole in the wall with an old curtain railing. His efforts dislodged a few spiders, small ones that looked like floating grass seeds. He stood on the spongy material and put his face to the hole. It was dark between the criss-crossed beams but a shape caught his eye. On the beam directly in front of him, a black spider crouched like a fat jewel. An intricate grey web curved out of sight.
Pauly studied the spider, waiting for it to move. It crouched as though it knew it was being watched. The hard, plasticky body looked indestructible; it would take more than one stomp of a boot to extinguish its life. Workmen could be heard traipsing over the ceiling. Meaty thuds shook the beams. The spider’s web quivered but the spider didn’t move. The creature’s eyes were dull with malignant intelligence. Pauly moved back a bit, just in case it could jump.
Armando hoisted himself up against the side of his prison and called his brother. When Pauly paid him no mind, the cries became screams of indignation. Their mother came to rescue Armando, and Pauly hastily left his perch.
-
There was not much sleep to be had that night. Aguablanca was alight; members of clashing gangs rampaged, filling the streets with gunfire. Then the builders started early. Pauly and Armando ate breakfast to the insect-like whine of drills. Neither felt much like eating. Their hair was plastered to their heads with perspiration.
Their mother lit the stove so she could prepare a special meal for Armando’s birthday. It was so hot the air wasn’t satisfying to breath anymore. Armando found his favourite bit of cloth and proceeded to stuff it into his pants. Abandoning the useless fan, Pauly went to check on the spider.
It was on its beam, in exactly the same position as before. Pauly wondered if perhaps the spider just liked to sit that way, or whether it had died. He tapped at the edge of the hole. The spider crouched, looking as wise and patient as a sphinx. He carefully manoeuvred a length of the curtain rail until it was poised to give the creature the very gentlest of nudges. The spider gave a nonchalant flick of its leg. Pauly made a hasty retreat, before the railing could be used as a bridge to his fingers. His mother heard the shower of plaster and came in brandishing a fat yellow zucchini.
-
The next day, when businesses were open again, their mother left to find work. She asked a neighbour, a widow named Lucia, to sit with the boys. Lucia brought some knitting with her, even though it was still very warm and just looking at the wool made everyone feel hotter.
Pauly had checked on the spider after breakfast and it still hadn’t moved. It was playing with him. As they sat with the clack-clack ing Lucia, he decided that he would prepare a trap. All he needed was some bait, something irresistible to spiders. Lucia’s beady eye stopped him from catching a fly on the spot. He played with Armando instead.
After a while, Lucia went upstairs to check on her dog; it had been unusually quiet. Pauly stood in her impression and peered into the hole.
Something was wrong. There was now a smaller spider crouched on the beam, and it was working at puncturing the black spider’s pea-shaped behind. The wound leaked a clear kind of ooze. Pauly expected the black spider would pounce at any moment. Its eyes glowed dully, but nothing happened – except that Lucia returned and he couldn’t look anymore.
-
The day went by very slowly, and Lucia made them eat a kind of beans that neither of them liked. Then their mother returned with the news that she had been hired by a restaurant. She was laughing and pretty; even Lucia smiled to see her.
-
Finally, Armando was in his playpen, their mother was in the kitchen, Lucia was upstairs with her dog, and Pauly was free to stand on the lounge chair. A sad sight greeted him. The black spider was alone, its body shriveled like a sultana. It looked very small.
Pauly hit the wall with a fist. Armando looked over with interest. Pauly noticed and stiffened his chest. He took the piece of curtain railing, pushed it into the spider’s lair and lifted the creature out. One of its trailing legs caught at the web, so Pauly went back in and lifted the sticky mess out with it.
He carried his staff over to Armando and put the spider close to his face. Armando looked worried. Pauly held his breath and jabbed at the spider with a finger. Armando laughed in amazement. Pauly told him he would keep the spider in a matchbox. He left the curtain rail and went to hunt for a suitable container. When he returned, the spider had disappeared.
Pauly leapt onto the lounge, scanning the floor for its telltale shape. Then he saw Armando and, with a yell, ran to pick him up. Armando still hadn’t realised the danger they were in. Slowly, his mouth opened in an indignant wail.
And Pauly saw it. There, behind a pink protrusion of gum—the tip of a spindly black leg.
jcmontgomery, 5 months ago
Arrrggghhhhhhh!
Geez, this was awesome. The end was perfect. But ugghhhh.
LOL
fleece, 5 months ago
nice work pinky, builds well.