Abigail And The Spider - A Short Story Of Fantasy

Image from: maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com

I just returned from my short trip to Athens. We had a great time with @trumpman, @alx.magentio took us in for those two nights we stayed there - Thank you so much my friend! Tonight's post is a bedtime story, specially written for a very dear Steemian that, as most of us know, dreads spiders! Let's see if I can make her hate them a little less after this post.

Some music always makes a story better, don't you think?

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Once upon a time in a land not far away from ours, in the land of our dreams lived a girl named Abigail. With a mind sharp and a clothes' peg around her finger. With hair long and dark. With skin white and eyes brown.

Abigail had a dream, she wanted to fly away from her little town. She wanted to see the world. Travel and eat and drink and meet people and make friends and run and dance and love. And how could she not? She was a child full of hopes. 

But Abigail had a tremendous fear. She dreaded the spider that lived in her backyard. Her grandmother told her that it was the devil lurking outside and if she ever tried to leave the house the spider would get her and eat her soul!

- I swear it's the devil in eight legs and four eyes! He will eat your soul and take you to hell! You must never get out of the house. Only I love you, that's why you must stay here and help me all your life.

And the poor child obeyed and learnt to dread spiders ever since she could remember her self. 

One night, she was leaning over her bedroom window gazing at the stars. She was so tired after working hard around the house all day. You see, her grandmother had told her that Abigail should do all the housework, because Nanna was too old for that. She had cooked and washed the dishes, swept the floor and dusted the furniture, brought firewood and fed the chickens. 

- Aah! I'm exhausted, she shighed. With the devil lurking in my gardern I can never get out of this place. Of course I can't leave Nanna alone here, she loves me too much and I have to help her, but there are so many things I want to see out there.

Where did Abigail learn those things? She wasn't allowed to go to school. It was her mother's books she found hidden in a chest in the attic. Dozens of photo albums with beautiful pictures of islands and towns and little villages up in the mountains or by the sea. Her mother was in them, her father too. Abigail spent nights dreaming of being there with them.

Swinging under that tree with the weird trunk in Namimbia, going on a camel ride in the Sahara, swimming in the coral reef of Belize... Oh how much she missed them. Had they still been alive, they would have taken her to explore the world together.

But after that accident, her grandmother took her in and cared for her. Abigail was too young to remember. And even though Nanna was scary and strict she had to love Abigail, because she was family and that's what families do, they love each other no matter how much they ask from us.

Abigail got in bed and fell asleep under her old quilt. She knew that if she fell asleep quickly, then quickly would the dreams come. That's what happened every night and if she was lucky enough, she would even see her parents tonight.

The weather was warm that night and Abigal had left her bedroom window open. She loved the moonlight shedding beams between her curtains onto her wooden floor. She believed it looked like silver ladders for the angels to climb down to earth. And if an angel would ever get to her bedroom she would ask them to take her to her parents.

And that night somebody did climb down her room on a silver ladder, only it wasn't made of moonlight but silk. A tiny black spider with a silver circle round its head that looked like a halo came in from the open window. She looked at Abigail sleeping. Took a few turns around her bedpost and then climbed up all the way to her pillow. 

With short and quick steps the spider was now next to her face, she could feel Abigail's warm breath upon it. The spider tilted its head and looked at her for a while, then came closer and gently touched the girl's cheek. Abigail moved a bit but didn't wake up. Then, the spider touched her nose, this tickling sensation would always wake Abigail up ever since she was a baby. And it did.

Abigail opened her big brown eyes. She took a few seconds before the blurriness was gone and when she saw that eight-legged miniature of the devil in front of her, she tossed out of her bed covers and said:

- En el nombre del padre y el hijo y el espiritu santo, go back to the hell that gave birth to you!

- Woah! Woah! Jesus, relax Abigail! What do you think I am? Some kind of demon with a thing for sleeping kids?

- I know very well what you are! My grandmother has told me everything about you. You are the black spider that lives in our back yard. You are the devil that wants to eat my soul. You were tired of waiting for me to try and leave the house so you got in to get me!

- Jeez, girl I think you need a shrink.

- So now you'll shrink me to eat me? I thought my body size had nothing to do with my soul.

- Boy! You're crazy, you know that?

- I am not crazy! That's the truth, I know it because my grandmother told me that and she would never lie to me!

- Abigail, calm down! I am not here to eat your soul, I would never eat anyone's soul, unless of course soul was the name of any tasty, crunchy insect species.

- Are you telling me the truth?

- Why wouldn't I? And why would I wake you up if I wanted to eat your soul? Don't you think being asleep and silent would have made my job easier?

- I suppose you're right.

- Duuuh! I am only here to help you. I know your story, I've been watching you ever since you were born. I know how much you miss your parents and how desperately you want to leave this place and travel the world and learn new things and meet new people. So I came to take you.

- What? Take me? No! Where would you take me? I can't leave the house or Nanna!

- We both know you can and you must if it is to go after your dreams. We both know it is not fair to work like a slave in here, not go to school, not have friends and not being able to play like all the other children.

- But Nanna loves me and wants to protect me.

- Nanna loves nothing but her rage and anger for losing her daughter over your father, the man with the spider tattoo on his arm. He was the one who insisted on travelling so much, he was responsible for the accident, if he hadn't arranged the flight to that exotic place then they would both be alive.

- That's not true, Nanna loves me and I help her because she is very old.

- That's not true, you help her because you have no other choice. But what if I told you that now there is a choice.

- Like what?

- Like me taking out of here.

- How will you do it? You're a tiny spider.

- I am no regular spider, dear. Have you met a lot of spiders that can talk and know all this stuff?

- No. In fact, I haven't met any other spider in my life.

- That's why I'm telling you, you have to follow me.

- And how are we ever leaving this place? I can't climb walls like you do.

- Abigail, do you believe in magic?

- I don't know... I guess so.

- Then there is nothing to worry about. Come on, let's go by the open window.

Abigail let the spider climb on her right hand and walked to the window where she could see the back yard. Trees were surrounding their house. Looking down she realised how tall the house was and how the spider's idea sounded dangerous.

- We can't go through the window, I'll fall down.

- No you won't! We will fly!

- Birds fly, spiders climb and crawl and jump.

- And fly! Look at my silver threads.

And the spider pointed its tussy outside and tossed a bunch of fine thin silver threads in the air. They looked sparkling under the moonlight. 

- Do you see them? the spider asked.

- Yes.

- Now these are going to help us fly, but all you need to do is believe.

- I can't do it, I know! We are going to fall and you are nothing but a devil-spider. A scary black spider. I shouldn't be talking to you. I need to go back to bed.

- Come on, you know you want to try.

Abigail snorted.

- Don't go like that. You know you can do it and you know that beyond those trees a whole new world lies unexplored, awaiting you to discover it.

Abigail made a funny grimace, she smirked, blinked and finally said,

- Ok! I will go for it. Just tell me what I have to do.

- That's my girl! Now, sit on the window with your legs hanging from the outside.

- Ok, what now?

- Now take some of those silver threads and wrap them firmly around your hands, we need to get you all safe and tight, we don't want you to fall.

Abigail followed the spider's instructions. She now had two silver, silky handcuffs around her wrists.

- Are you ready to take off, sweet Abigail?

- I think so.

- It will take a few minutes, we just need for the perfect breeze to come.

And the wind heard them. And a light cool breeze blew and lifted them up in the skies! Abigail was so excited to see the earth beneath her feet. The trees were getting smaller and her house roof too. Smaller and smaller until she could no longer see them.

And Abigail flew away from her past, her fears her domineering grandmother. What destinations is she going to reach, what new adventures will be written over the pages of her life's diary from now on? Only she knows. She and her new spider friend.

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*Original story by @ruth-girl - Steemit, 2018 - @abigail-dantes, this was for you :)

This was just a fantasy but you can clearly spot the obvious symbolizations within it: 

The "loving" Nanna, the family that sometimes manipulates a child emotionally in order to keep it forever at home. 

The spider, obviously Nanna's hatred for the one who came to take her child away, the one who led her daughter to her death. A projection of Nanna's hatred, was feeding the child's fear. But what Abigail dreaded finally became her savior.

I believe this short story will help you realise how our biggest fears and the restrictions other set on us sometimes push us to the greatest journeys of our lives, all we need to do is... overcome them!

If you liked this, you may also like "The elephant in chains" by Jorge Bucay.

As for the silken threads the spider weaved to fly, spiders do use this technique. It is called ballooning and I explained it in previous post [Bizarre Natural Phenomena Vol. 39 - A Town Coated In Silk (Angel Hair Or Spider Rain)].

Thank you so much for your time!

Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!