The emerald spider - I

As I run past the wild trees, dry thorny boughs and twigs get entwined in the lace of my long skirt and dwindle along the path. I keep running slowing down a little to loosen them and throw them away. They make little incisions on my fingers and color the lace red. My speed decreases and I slow down a bit, gasping for breath, my lips are parched, and my dry throat desperately needs water. As my gasps get louder and my throat coughs, I could hear gentle rustles behind me. I try breathing orally, and gathering my long skirt, fit myself into the hollow of the nearby dead tree, and hold down a large leafy branch across to bury me.

There is no trace of the rustles now and I heave a not so loud sigh. Looking up at the sky, I could see dark clouds gathering far north, and a very light drizzle. What a timely respite, where else would I find something to quench my thirst. As the drizzle got heavier, and showers came down the thunderous sky, a spider web started becoming visible right before my eyes. The web getting destroyed in the rain, a huge emerald spider jumped and climbed onto my cheeks.

It was the dirtiest and creepiest thing I had ever seen, and as I lost my balance in the process, my hands let go off the branch that I had been holding to shade from my perpetrators, and the sudden jerk, made a cluster of spiders fall right onto my skirt. As I tried moving to my sides, I found myself tumbling down and my legs go down into the air, and kicked them, only to wake up in my bed.

I was still shivering, and looking up, saw it was already past 9. Feeling hungry, I stepped out of my cozy, cuddly bed, into the kitchen, precisely the place where the refrigerator was housed. As I placed my hands on the door handle, a chubby monstrous hand slapped mine, it was obviously the demon of the house, which blurt out “Brush your teeth”.

Sitting on my cozy couch, with my head resting on my darling monster’s shoulders, I started munching the reheated leftover pizza, and blurt out, “hmmm... irresistible”.

“Me, Darling?”

“No darling, the pizza.”

“Darling, didn’t you see the message I forwarded you yesterday?”

“Wife beating husband jokes?”

“No.”

“Foolish blonde/girlfriend jokes?”

“No.”

“What else then darling?

“The one on MSG in pizzas”

“I don’t read or remember such messages darling. Do you know something? I woke up to the same nasty dream yet again.”

“The one in which you were cooking?”

“No. The one in which you were eating. Stop all your misogyny jokes, and listen. I am talking about the spider dream”.

“In which you are chased”

“Yes”

“Now what about that, don’t you always get that?”

“Yes, I do. I always get that dream. That is why. I doubt if there is some message in that. You see an oft repeated dream, means something; say something like my past life. I told you about my laced long skirt in the dream. Didn’t I?”

“Colonial times?”

“Possible”

“Sweetheart, don’t be so carried away. Don’t think so much. You read so many books, and this seems to be just a side effect. Nothing more”

“Why do I get spiders of all creatures then? And why do I run like that? What do the thorns mean? There is so much of bloodshed.”

“Don’t call that small incision as bloodshed”

“You know what? You don’t understand. Dreams have bigger meanings. And those that are oft repeated definitely have some relation to my past and my future. My previous birth or the one before that or may be the one prior to that.”

“If at all there is any meaning to your oft repeated dream, it could be just that you see, you are not organized properly, your things lie in corners unattended, untouched, there could be spiders around, definitely, and if you don’t organize yourself, you may have to run away from the spiders. True Story. In fact,”

“Don’t be so rude.” I pushed his hands off me, it was then I noticed that his ring finger was nude! I mean the ring was missing.

“Where is the ring?”

“Oh that! I had a severe itch on the ring finger last night and so removed it.”

There were tiny red rash marks on his fingers, and it looked a bit swollen. As I inspected the finger, I could see the swollen part of the finger looked very much like...

“Hey look! This is exactly how the dream spider looked”

“The Emerald one?”

“Yes!”

I tried looking a bit shocked and scared, at his eyes.

“Stop it! Will you?” He said laughing loud, and I couldn’t stop joining him.