September Surprise

It was 8:51 a.m.  I had been up since 6:30 that morning, and been rather more productive than usual for a warm September day off from school.  I had cooked breakfast for my dad and I earlier, and was now finishing my algebra at the breakfast table.  The temperature in the room began to rise as more light poured in the window; it would be hot outside soon.  I looked toward the sunlight, and was glad to have the screen absorbing some of the intensity.  My eyes traced the screen up from the windowsill and landed on a figure: small, blue, and clung to the screen.  I got up and walked out under the porch and around to the window where I stood barefoot, my gaze meeting two little eyes.  He stared at me with curiosity, but ready to bolt.  I could see that he had recently re-grown his tail; probably having lost it in a close call with a hawk or cat.  I began to reach my hand up toward him.  He looked at my hand, then at me sharply and made a run for it, traveling completely vertical downward.  It was as if gravity didn’t apply to him.  I laughed and walked back inside.  I began working, and noticed a small black ant on my leg, which I immediately swept off before I thought about it.  I reached to tune the radio on the windowsill, not far from where the ant had landed.   I watched it out of the corner of my eye as it began to crawl around while I searched for the right station.  I was debating if I should take it outside or leave it there to figure out its own options when I noticed it wasn’t moving, but wiggling, as if some invisible force was restraining it.  As I looked closer I noticed that a spider barely bigger than the ant was running frantically around it, encasing it in a web so clear it was invisible to my naked eye.  The spider stopped and sunk its fangs into the small body.  The ant slowly stopped wiggling and became stiff.  The spider then ran into the crack of the windowsill, safe and camouflaged.   Now all that was left behind was the tiny corpse of the ant who evidently didn’t have any options.  So quickly it was there, and so abruptly it came to an end.