Creeps on Eight Legs
The mission of Friday was to find new and improved hiking shoes for Israel. After Joe had returned from class, he accompanied Collette and Carrie-Bri in their quest. There was something very unappealing about shopping. Collette had never enjoyed it. Sometimes she blamed it on the fact that when Carrie had been in junior high… Maybe it was a tale for another day. However, Carrie’s shopping trips during this unmomentous phase of her life had been miserable. Collette accompanied to keep the peace. They had been completely unpleasant, as Carrie would attest. But on that last chilly day in November, seven years later, they were successful. One thing more to check off the list.
Back on the ranch, while Mom had also been out to the stores, Rose was watching the crew, which included the snoozing Puck. Rose was not to be bothered, however, no matter how vital it was to clean the house before Mom returned. The old analog video recorder had just about bit the dust after thirteen years. And Rose was on her own mission to repair it. Things were not going well. The miniature screws were not loosening very easily. After Collette had dug around in Dad’s tool chests, she retrieved several boxes of jeweler’s screwdrivers which finally did the trick. Unfortunately, the big blow came later that day.
The camcorder had been successfully taken apart. The pieces had been set on the table. Sadly, the cord attached to the camera had not been removed from the wall. And, as they all knew too well, whenever anyone approached the house (be it friend or foe), the dog would bark hysterically and run to the door, never mind what lay in his path. Joe had just returned from class. When he knocked on the door, Trooper went crazy.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
He tore through the dining room, past the table, under the cord, which caught on his back…
CRASH!
Down came the camera. And that was the end. Rose spent the rest of her afternoon in pajama scrubs, hair fuzzed out like a scare-a-crow, glasses on, tools in hand, trying her best to fix the poor machine. It was a hopeless case, it seemed.
“Orange goo is oozing out of it,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
She took a break to bang spoons on pots with Puck in the kitchen. This was not to last long, however. There was a disaster in the bathroom.
“Aaaaaaaah!” Rose yelled. “Hundreds of baby spiders all over the ceiling!”
Obviously, an egg sack had hatched. Joe hurried up the stairs to save the day with a can of roach spray. For the next while, he and Rose took turns spraying the spiders – Joe with the roach spray – Rose with Lysol.
“Get the hairspray! Get the hairspray!” Linnea said anxiously as the spiders fell from their webbing.
“No, hairspray doesn’t kill them fast enough.”
Rose had had plenty of experience in that department.
Once the spiders seemed to have been sufficiently killed, it was about time to call it a day.