Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Precious Places

There were a lot of people outside. It was late evening after a rainstorm. The air was still heavy from the rain. The alley was cold and the walls were damp. They stood in a circle looking at the ground. In the mist of the crowd was a slimy bubble stuck to the old brick drive. It appeared to be the focus of attention. One man shouted out, "It's just a hobo, we should let it go!" I felt a tingle of fear upon hearing this request. Another man jumped out of the circle and popped the bubble. It became apparent that the creature that emerged from the bubble was believed to be a hobo spider. It looked nothing like any spider I have ever seen. It's legs were flailing but didn't appear to be the driving force of motion. It had a flat belly and moved about with ease. It seemed as if it was being pulled by some exterior force. The creature's body was a smooth yellow and appeared to be made of plastic. The crowd split and moved back as the "hobo spider" glided along in a fury. It moved towards me. I grew more afraid. I felt a heaviness in my right hand and looked down to find a can of bug spray. I wasn't sure where it had come from, but I found strength in it's presence and ran towards the creature. As I advanced towards it, I realized that it's face was that of a mouse. I had seen an animal like this before. I didn't stop.
With all my strength I held that can of bug spray with two hand and screamed as I sprayed the creature. It coughed twice. I woke up.

I had to think about it for a little while, but I figured out where I had seen that mouse like face. When I was a girl, I used to collect these doll houses called Precious Places. They were these elaborate houses that came with a whole family of little plastic dolls. Each doll had a magnet on the bottom and you could move them about the house by using a magnet wand bellow the thin plastic floor. My favorite thing in the house was always the little plastic mouse, except it was pink in life and did not have spider legs.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Reading this really creeped me out.