Kreative Kue 336 asked for submissions based on this photograph:
John W Howell is a multiple nominated and award-winning author who blogs at Fiction Favorites. Details of John’s books can be found on his Amazon author page
The Identity by John W. Howell © 2021
“Hello.”
“I need to speak softly since I don’t want to disturb it, and it looks dangerous.”
“Understood. I can hear you fine. What do you see?”
“Hard to explain. I would like to get closer but may spook it.”
“Well, do the best you can from there. Don’t take any risks.”
“Okay, so the first thing I see is hair.”
“Hair?”
“Yeah, KInda creepy. Looks like it might be all over its body.”
“That gives me the willies. Why don’t you just get out of there?”
“I’m afraid to move. Although it looks asleep, it might be faking.”
“Why do you think it’s asleep.”
“There’s no movement.”
“Dead?”
“No, I can see breathing but other than that, nothing.”
“You think it’s poisonous?”
“Really hard to tell. The face doesn’t show signs of any fangs.”
“That isn’t always a sign.”
“Yeah, but it lacks the kind of mouth that would typically be associated with a poisonous creature.”
“Describe it”
“From here I can only say it has teeth and makes noise when it sleeps.”
“Sounds like your average house human to me.”
“They aren’t dangerous?”
“Tell me it’s laying down.”
“Yeah.”
“It is a hibernation ritual called a nap. When they get up they could be dangerous especially if there is a newspaper near.”
“I don’t see one.”
“Still I would get out of there. You have waterspout work to do.”
“Yes sir. Getting right on it.”
My effort was:
It’s okay to groan (again).
We’re a harmless bunch, really. Spiders, I mean. Okay, most of us. Some have nasty bites and things but only a few.
Did you know, of the seventy-odd thousand species of arachnid on Earth, more than forty-five thousand are spiders?Think about it. More than forty-five thousand species ranging from the tiny Patu Digua, which is just over a third of a millimetre at full stretch, right up to the Goliath Bird-Eating Spider which has a leg span of twenty-eight centimetres.
They reckon there are more than twenty quadrillion spiders alive on the Earth today. That’s about three million spiders for every human. Perhaps it’s no surprise that they’re scared.
You would have thought, though, that with those numbers, and taking account of the fact that spiders have been around on Earth for 380 million years, we’d be better organised, wouldn’t you?
Let’s talk about what we’re good at. Weaving webs. As far as I know, the biggest single web ever seen was twenty-five metres across. It was made by a Darwin’s bark spider and crossed a river in Madagascar.
Just think about that for a while. Twenty quadrillion spiders weaving webs up to twenty-five metres across. What does that give you?
Damned right. A worldwide web!
[Now would be a good time to groan.]
Using this photo as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; even just a caption for the photograph. Either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before 6pm on Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here.
Go on. You know you want to. Let your creativity and imagination soar. I shall display the entries next time.
Keith Kreates! 