Emily and The Spider (5 page)

However, the next moment she could feel
somebody’s face just above hers. She woke with a start and saw
looking down at her was her daddy’s face!

“Now don’t move ‘Little Em’, it will be okay”
he said. For all he could see was his beautiful daughter curled up
in a giant web with some kind of monstrous spider on top of
her!

“Just keep still baby” he said, as he raised
the stick and smashed it into Goliath with such a force that the
poor spider flew across the jungle floor and landed upside down in
a heap.

Emily still half asleep and a little bit
stunned, felt herself being lifted up by her daddy, who immediately
started to run. “You’re safe now ‘Little Em’, daddy’s got you”.

Emily started screaming. “Daddy, stop, no,
please. I have to show you something”.

But her dad just kept on running, faster and
faster. Emily was frantic now. She couldn’t leave Goliath, Bird and
Bes alone. She looked into her daddy’s eyes and calmly said “Daddy,
please stop”.

Shocked by what his daughter had said, he
immediately stopped running. He looked at his daughter with an
intent curiosity. “What is it darling”? he said.

“Daddy, they are my friends” Em said as she
wriggled to the floor. “Please daddy, follow me, I have a lot to
tell you”. And she led her dad back to the place where he had found
her in the web hammock.

Once there she spotted Bird and Bes, who were
sat next to a motionless Goliath.

“I,I think he’s dead” said Bird sadly. “He
took quite a hit!”

Emily’s dad fell to the floor. “Emily, what
is all this” he asked, bewildered and confused.

“Oh daddy, that is Goliath. He is my friend”.
She started to cry now. With all they had been through, all the
fear and adventure. It was just all too much for her now. She broke
down in her daddy’s arms.

Bird and Bes looked at Emily’s dad
accusingly.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t know. I just saw
Emily and thought…..well, I thought that she was in danger” he
said.

Bird was very angry. He flew up to his face.
“The only danger here is you! I’ve a good mind to peck out your
eyeballs! Coming here like you own the place, waving sticks and
taking ‘Little Em’ away from us…..”. Bird’s words began to trail
off as he began to realize that ‘Little Em’ would soon be leaving
them to go home.

Just then a strange noise could be heard. Not
quite a snore, not quite anything else. They all turned to where
the noise was coming from, only to see Goliath sitting up. He
looked around, bemused.

“Now how on god’s green earth did I end up
over here?”

Emily rushed down and seized him up in her
hand. “Oh, Goliath, you’re okay! Thank goodness!” she said and
turned to her daddy, smiling. “Daddy, let me introduce my
friends….”

Monica stumbled along the dusty road, moaning
and cursing to herself. It was hot today, she was unemployed,
hungry and in need of a bath.

“Isn’t it a beautiful day? Just out for a
stroll are we?” said a deep, well-spoken voice that came from
behind Miss Perivale.

Miss Perivale turned around slowly, to see a
large tiger sitting there, leisurely licking his paws. Her face was
a mask of complete horror and she immediately began to scream.

“Oh no, please spare me, not a screamer” said
Stripe, “I have had such a troublesome day already”.

He looked straight at Miss Perivale. “You
know, I don’t normally go for road-kill, and there seems hardly
enough meat really….. but needs must and all that”.

The tiger leapt at Monica and she let out a
terrified scream. The last thing she ever saw was a large mouth,
full of sharp teeth, closing around her face!

Today was the best and worst day of ‘Little
Em’s’ life. She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed her
mummy and daddy.

All she had thought about the last few days
was getting Bes back safely to her family. But, unfortunately, that
was not to be.

And now, as she sat there and introduced her
friends to her dad, who had took this all surprisingly well, under
the circumstances. (Well, it was not every day that your daughter
introduced two talking spiders and a talking bird as her friends,
now was it?) Emily thought sadly to herself.

Emily’s dad however, if truth be known, was
in shock. He was overwhelmed by all that had gone on, but he was
happy, happy that his daughter was safe again. She was precious to
both him and her mother.

‘Little Em’ told her daddy about all that had
happened. About the stool, about feeding Bes’s mum, the accident,
the adventures, the capture by the monkey’s and Bes biting the
tiger! She finally got to the Orbs and how Goliath had asked them
to help to save her when she jumped into the river.

She looked around at her daddy and her
friends. Her dad looked positively pale and Goliath had tears in
his eyes.

“Oh Goliath, please come and live with us,
all of you. It’s alright isn’t it daddy? They can stay in the
house, under the house, anywhere. Oh, please say that they
can!”

“Of course they can all come and live with
us. They saved your life didn’t they? I could never thank them
enough.” said ‘Little Em’s daddy.

“Oh, thank you daddy” she cried “I love
you”.

The weeks went by and ‘Little Em’ and her
friends lived and played happily at the large white house with the
veranda, of which, Emily could now run around in just 33 seconds.
It took Goliath half an hour to complete the same lap!

Bird would come and go whenever he pleased
and Bes just got bigger and bigger. Much to the terror of Bird, who
could still not believe that she didn’t want to eat him. Bes,
however, found this quite amusing and continually joked with Bird
that he probably did taste like chicken after all!

It was now late summer and Emily was sitting
in the garden drawing when her daddy came to speak to her.

“Little Em?” he said.

“Yes daddy” replied Emily.

“I am afraid that I have some bad news” he
said and Emily looked intently at him. “We are going to have to
move sweetheart. You see, the people that I work for have given me
a job somewhere else…..”

Emily did not let him finish. She ran as fast
as she could into the jungle, crying. She knew what this meant.

The hours passed as Emily sat at the base of
a very large tree. Goliath was the first to find her, when everyone
was getting worried about where she was.

“Emily, what’s the matter?” he said.

“Oh, Goliath! My daddy says that we are
moving away and I don’t know when I will see you all again!”

“Well, I suppose that I knew this day would
come. Children get older, spiders get bigger” he nodded to Bes, who
had just joined them at the tree. “I know it’s hard, but you must
go with your family” he said.

“But, you’re my family too” Emily said
through her tears.

“You can come visit” said Bird. “We don’t
want you to go either, but Goliath is right, you should go with
your family.”

“No he isn’t” Bes said angrily as she crawled
up Emily’s arm. “Don’t leave me, I need you” she cried.

Emily sat there sadly, with her friends, and
she knew that she would soon have to leave her friends. “I promise,
I promise you all, that one day I will come back ,come back here
and we can all be together. Together again. I am so sorry. I will
miss you all terribly” and with that she ran back to the house,
crying.

Finally, the day had arrived, the day of the
move. Rather appropriately, it was raining and all in all a
miserable day.

The large removal van was being loaded up
with all their possessions and ‘Little Em’ knew that, in just a
short time, she would leave this place.

She had asked her daddy earlier, what had
happened to Miss Perivale and was told that she had mysteriously
disappeared. All Emily had replied was “oh, how sad”, not really
meaning it at all.

She hadn’t seen her friends all day, but she
was glad of this. She was going to find it very difficult to say
goodbye to Bird, Bes and Goliath. In fact, she was dreading it.

The rain poured down as Emily walked slowly
to the car. Her daddy opened the back door and she climbed in, her
heart as heavy as a rock. The car began to pull off and make its
way down the dusty driveway, when suddenly Emily’s dad stopped
sharply.

“Emily, I think there’s someone who wants to
say goodbye” he said.

He opened the Emily’s door and pointed. “Over
there” he whispered.

Emily looked to where her dad had pointed.
There, by the roadside, just under a sign, was Bes, Bird and
Goliath, all soaking wet, waiting to say their final goodbyes to
Emily.

“This is hurting” said Bes as she crawled up
Emily’s arm. “Please come back soon”.

Goliath sat there, with Bird on his back, who
for the first time ever, had nothing to say. He just raised his
little blue and green wing and waved as ‘Little Em’ got back into
the car and drove off.

Her crying could be heard for a long time,
mingled with the rain. Then all was quiet. Goliath, Bes and Bird
just sat there, in the rain, not speaking, not moving.

(20 years later)

The large white house had stood empty for a
great many years. Vines and bushes had started to cover much of it
and it no longer looked as splendid as it once had. The ‘For Sale’
sign had been covered over now with a ‘Sold’ sign and this was
nailed to the front porch.

Bes had gotten much bigger and had made a
nice home for herself up in the rafters, not too far from where she
was born.

Bird lived up in the roof space with his wife
and five children!

Goliath came and went. Every few months he
would come and visit Bes and Bird and always ask the same question,
“Any news yet, has she come back?” And the answer would always be
the same, “not yet my old friend, but she will, she will”.

Today was to be Goliath’s last visit, as he
was now very old and had decided to live out the rest of his days
in the jungle, as best he could.

He had come to the house to say his goodbyes
to Bes and Bird. His aching legs carried him up the steps to the
veranda, where he slowly walked around. “Still takes half and hour”
he said to himself.

“Hello old friend” said a voice behind him,
one that he did not recognize. He slowly turned to see where the
voice came from. Before him stood a beautiful woman, who looked
vaguely familiar.

“Seen any tigers around here lately?” the
woman asked.

“Emily, is that you?” he asked
disbelievingly. “It is you, isn’t it? I don’t believe it! Bird,
Bes, quick, quick come here” he shouted.

Bird flew over to Goliath to see what all the
fuss was about.

“Well, you took your time, young lady!” said
Bird.

“Oh Bird, Goliath, I am so happy to be back”.
Said Emily as she picked up Goliath and hugged him tightly, as bird
shouted “Mother, Mother!! Bring the kids, she’s back, she’s
back!

Emily was so happy to be home at last she
placed Goliath back on the floor and asked “Where is Bes?”

The little girl stood on the stool and looked
up at the spiders web. She had a handkerchief in her pocket, which
she carefully pulled out and opened up. Inside the handkerchief
were lots of dead flies. Her mummy had told her where to find them.
So she had collected as many as she could. She carefully began to
throw the flies into the web. “Want some food?” she asked.

“My name is Grace. What is yours?” Said the
little girl not really expecting any sort of answer.

The big orange stripey spider crawled out of
it’s dark hiding place and came face to face with the little
girl.

“Why, my name is Bes” she said.

The little girl fell off the stool and ran
away shouting “Mummy, mummy, a talking spider!”

The End