Forward: This story is dedicated to 2012-2013 YES semi-finalist Astrid L., who posted the following status on Facebook yesterday.
Spider in my bed. It got away.
No sleep tonight.
Daily Journal – March 11th, 2012
During the final night of our three-day stay at the Green Turtle Lodge, our group stayed in a self-contained room due to the dormitories being occupied. The room featured two beds with an extra mattress on the floor for the extra person.
I ‘dibbed’ the mattress on the floor during the bus ride to Takoradi since I had to share beds on the last two trips and was the [unofficial] leader of the group. The mattress’ mosquito net was malfunctioning, but the bugs weren’t bothering me. I took off my glasses, and soon fall fast asleep.
I was dreaming of lions when I heard my name being urgently whispered. I groaned at the noise. The whispers quickly morphed into shouts.
“AVERY – GET UP!” Bany screeched as she pounded my shoulders.
“Go to sleep,” I croaked – shading the light from my eyes. Slowly I rolled over to ignore her, and face the wall.
“Dude – move,” stated Drew bluntly.
I groaned and mustered together enough effort to open my eyes. Gee golly gosh – was I glad I did so! Standing less than one foot from my head was a spider staring me dead in my eyes. It was roughly two inches big, and had an orange streak on its midsection.
I got up from the bed immediately. The spider didn’t move. I looked around the room for a weapon to use against my six-legged foe. I ultimately settled upon Adriana’s size 13 sandals.
I approached the spider like a ninja. Once I was within striking distance, I paused. After thinking, I decided that the best tactic would be to launch a quick attack and suddenly swing the shoe at the spider so it wouldn’t have the opportunity to crawl away.
Zeus must’ve fainted; tragedy struck. I swung the shoe too quickly and lost control of it. It slammed against the floor, and the spider scurried off the mattress, onto the wall, and behind the $200 painting on the wall.
A note – $200 is a ridiculous price for a painting in Ghana. I bought a large 3×2 foot painting for $40 after bartering, and could’ve gotten it for cheaper if I was with a Ghanaian. The $200 painting at the Green Turtle was smaller than the one I bought myself, and was five times more expensive.
Regardless, the spider stood behind the painting – and I didn’t want to sleep on the floor until it was vanquished.
Bany, the El Salvadoran that she is, stood up and nonchalantly lifted up the painting. The spider wasn’t on the wall behind it. We sat puzzled for a moment, as our eyes were glued to the wall the entire time and there was no hole for the spider to crawl in. Bany flipped the painting around to take a look at the other side.
Hell broke loose. Sitting on the back of the canvas was three spiders. Adriana shrieked, and Drew cried to the heavens for help. The next couple of seconds were a blur; the result somehow ended up as a shoe being thrown at the painting. Bany jumped and let go of the artwork which crashed to the floor. The spiders scurried away unscathed.
Needless to say, I didn’t sleep a wink.
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-Avery
P.S: The painting ended up intact – after brushing off the dirt 🙂
