Eight legs too many

A story ---

Last week after our night at the Beer Dome in Naha, I stayed with an Australian named Sandy at her apartment. She had asked me the night before whether I was scared of spiders. I was hesitant to answer, but said, "No, unless they`re hairy."

I come to find out that she had a very scary spider in her bathroom and had shut it in between the window pane and the wall. We slept comfortably not worrying about the spider, but in the morning Sandy approached me about killing the beast. She was too afraid to open the window and informed me that the spider had only 4 legs. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical. I assumed it was probably just a big daddy longlegs type insect. So, with shoe in hand, I open the bathroom window and Sandy, who is standing outside, says it`s still there and still alive. I go out to see what I had to face and was shocked to see a HUGE brown, slightly HAIRY spider. With four legs. So, we gather our wits and decide to try to poke it out from it`s hiding spot. The broom just keeps the thing moving and we keep trying to shut it between the window and wall and smash it. Unfortunately, there is JUST enough room for the spider to live. I was a bit freaked out about the whole thing and decided that I just needed to get it done. I poked at the spider and it started running ... straight into the neighbor`s open bathroom window! I slammed Sandy`s window closed and ran into her house. Thankfully there are men in that apartment and we decided that after a few days they probably would find it and kill it. Sandy`s window would remain closed until then.

That brings us to today. I love my apartment. I love how sparse it is and how little stuff I really do have. There isn`t much to clean and it feels open and airy. I took a walk this morning and got ready to take a shower. Out of the corner of my eye I see something moving quickly on my blue tile. To my horror it is --- dum dum DUUUUM --- the same spider with eight legs. I quickly grabbed the bathroom sandals and started stalking my prey. The spider moved quickly but never really figured out how to hide behind things. He was exposed numerous times and finally I smashed him to bits. One leg remained on the floor after I cleaned up the carnage and flushed it down the toilet. It was one of those horrifying bugs that you know is still alive even after beating it to death. It might still crawl out of the toilet. This time with seven legs. So now I`m paranoid. I keep looking at all of the cracks in the walls. I am afraid to move clothes because one might dart out. So much for my Zenlike apartment.