It lives in my garage and in my fears. The spider made its home in the corner of my garage, sitting in its web with a beautiful view of two cars and a clutter of furniture that was too valuable to trash, but too worthless to use. Every now and then, it would extend a strand of its silk to the floor and explore the garage, climbing over and claiming objects that were inexplicable in its tiny universe of eat and reproduce. The spider lost its intimidation when I witnessed it try to climb a cube of ice I’d left near its web. It labored for a good five minutes, trying to climb over, until it decided it’d be smarter to simply walk around and leave this plot of land unclaimed.

Whenever I’d check on the little thing, it would have a brand new bug caught in its web; some of them were still clinging on to life. It was nice, having a personal pesticide, getting rid of the the rogue moth or fly. I let it be, and watched as its web in the corner steadily expanded, twisting and turning between fixtures in the wall and holes in the ceiling. It eventually spread over the span of one entire wall, and I was almost proud when I saw an egg sac placed ever so gingerly back in the corner where it all started.

It took a month. I remember reading Charlotte’s Web, and crying when all of the baby spiders left their mother, Charlotte, to go venture to the outside world. And yet three of the newborns remained to accompany Wilbur the pig for another chapter of his life.

When the spiders left their tiny, round homes, they did what they were born to do: they explored. Even more than their mother did. They looked at the cars and made their homes in distant clutters of furniture and faraway corners. Some even managed to escape to the true nature that lay outside. And mother spider, with whom I’d grown so attached, stayed true to her lifestyle, almost forgetting her offspring and reverting to her lifestyle of eating and reproducing.

I named mother spider Charlotte. She liked to explore, she was a little intimidating, but nice when you got to know her, and she was a mediocre parent.

I really liked Charlotte.