Page 6 - Demo

6Elaine abhorred spiders. She had hated them since a little girl and at the age of thirty-two, she still did. She lived alone and had purchased the old cottage six months ago intending to renovate it. The spider in front of her now was a huge brown house spider. She knew it couldn%u2019t harm her as it%u2019s unable to puncture her skin deep enough to inject venom into her. She had looked it up on the internet. But that did not quell her fear or her revulsion. It was irrational but she knew many others felt the same.But they didn%u2019t have a fat brown one sitting in their bath and at a time one wanted a nice warm soak. She could turn the tap on, and it would be swept away down the plug hole, undoubtedly drowning in the process. But she had a moral code which was to not kill anything unless you were going to eat it. She saw all life as precious, even living things that made her shiver with revulsion. The only thing that repulsed her more were worms. But they didn%u2019t end up sitting in her bath.It had obviously slipped in and was now unable to get a grip on the smooth, shiny, acrylic surface. She was going to have to try and trap it in a large glass and slip a card under it to enclose it while she inverted it, and threw the spider out of the window after. She had done it a few times before, but she still lacked the confidence to do it slickly and with quickness and unerring intent.Elaine went to the kitchen and came back with a large pint beer glass and a postcard that was stuffed in one of the drawers. She never bothered putting her dressing gown back on, despite there being no blind or curtains on the kitchen window. It was unlikely anyone would be walking past in the brief moment she would be in there.Wrong.Her neighbour, an man in his forties, was coming home and walked Chapter 1: Another encounterSpider