The Clearing

I saw it--a big chunky spider--in the bath tub just before going to bed. Was relieved that I would not have to deal with it till at least the morning by which time it would probably be gone. My subconscious however had other plans, because a few minutes later I found myself having decided that I needed to wash my feet before going to bed. Dealing with the spider was tricky. I didn't want to kill it because would have hated cleaning up the gooey mess it was sure to create. I tried to initially nudge it so that it would walk up the walls of the tub and out, but I think the walls were too slick for a good purchase. Then I just scooped it into a magazine--pushed it up the wall and caught it on the magazine as it fell back off the wall--and dumped it outside the tub. Making sure that it left the apartment would probably have been a smart thing to do but I have become too complacent since I got an actual bed to sleep on--bye bye sleeping on the floor grad school days! But as I was falling asleep I obsessed a bit about where the spider might be. When I left the apartment in the morning, as I turned back to make sure that I'd locked it behind me, I saw the spider on the door mat on its way out--perhaps to a friendlier bath tub.