The Knot Spider #21

by Erik Lundgren

There was a little boy. His name was Tim. In his room there was a wooden desk. At night, he sat at his desk and drew crayon pictures of Dr. Destiny, his favorite movie hero. He stayed up late. His parents didn't know he stayed up. He stayed up even though he started to be afraid. Televisions murmured in other rooms of the house.

When he got afraid, he got afraid of a knot that was in his wood desk. To Tim, it looked just like a curled-up spider, with its legs wrapped around the outside of itself. A cocooned spider. Suddenly it would uncurl and be walking across his desk. If he wasn't careful, it would get him.

If I pound the desk, Tim thought, I might kill it. But it might not really be dead. Instead, it might be really mad. Then it will wait until I fall asleep and come get me.

Tim put duct tape over the knot in the wood. He felt safe for awhile. But he couldn't see it. He couldn't see what it was doing. Maybe it was chewing a tunnel in the wood to get out. That was worse. It was worse not seeing it and instead seeing it in his imagination.

Tim got the duct tape off with a long stick. He taped over the knot-spider again, but this time he used see-through tape.