Spiders

Sometimes, I imagine what I'd do if millions of spiders the size of dogs suddenly broke through the wall, and wherever I ran, they followed. They make me sick to my stomach because I had a scary encounter with a spider when I was a little girl.

I used to sleep without a shirt on, and I woke up to long, thin spider legs radiating out of my belly button. I was so scared I didn't even dare to breathe too much. I tried to figure out what to do but had no idea. Fortunately, the spider didn't take long before it crawled out.

I tried to offer it a corner of my blanket to make it stop crawling around on me, and the second it was on the blanket, I jumped up in disgust. I know spiders can crawl on you while you're asleep, but why there? I could never sleep without a shirt on, and I had horrible nightmares about spiders crawling inside my belly button and laying eggs. That was so awful in Richmond, Va.