Along Came a Spider

Driving toward the sun on my way to work with a smile on my face.  The windows were down and the radio was on.  The sun was shining and traffic wasn't bad.  I flipped down the sun visor and put my sunglasses on.  I was tapping my fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music while sitting at a red light.

It was there, in the left turn lane that I noticed it.  A spider was hanging on his strand of web and dangling just over my left hand.  This arachnid was the size of a nickle and red in color.  He was horrifying!  In the middle of lip syncing to the radio I let out a shriek.  The light turned green just as I was trying to figure out my strategy.   Before letting off of the brake I had questions.  When I turn left will the spider swing over my hands?  Will he fall and land on me?  My first instinct was to abandon the car in the middle of the road.  Certainly the other early morning commuters would understand.  I resisted the urge to jump and made the corner without making contact.  

My eyes started searching for a parking lot to pull into while at the same time keeping track of the movement of the spider.  He started to climb his strand of web and approached the top of the window opening.  My left hand immediately reached for the window controls and started it into the closed position.   I watched as both the window and the spider were racing to the top of the window opening.  I didn't want the window to trap him inside but I didn't want the spider to jump back in if he made it out.   The timing was nearly perfect and both were reaching the top at the same time.  I paused the window with half an inch to go.  As soon as the spider was out of view I pushed the window closed.   The crises had been averted. 

Eliminating the terror of this red spider did not calm my nerves.  As far as I knew the spider laid one hundred eggs before leaving the car.  I could be dealing with a lot more of these very soon.  The spider that was in the car just a minute ago was not a baby and he seemed old enough to have friends.  

In my now stressed condition, I made it safely to work.  When I got out of the car I cracked the windows back open to prevent the car from getting too hot in the afternoon.  Then I closed the door and I saw that my window had crushed the body of the spider in the window seal.  I thought about cleaning his corpse from my car but left it there as a warning to his kin.

Now that I think about it, it may have been my habit of cracking the windows that allowed a spider access to begin with.