A Children's Story

A Spider of Great Renown

Once there was a spider named Leonidas. As far back as she could remember, she remembered being different from the other spiders she knew. Leonidas had 7 legs. All of the other 8-leg spiders would often stare at her wherever she went. This always made her feel uncomfortable. But, what really bothered Leonidas was the times that the younger spiders would tease and laugh at her. The young spiders did this very often, and each time Leonidas wanted to get as far away from them as she could.

Leonidas lived where it was almost always dark. Sometimes, her world would suddenly become very bright. The brightness would last for a moment, sometimes longer than others, but then, just as suddenly, the brightness would leave and her world was dark again. All of the other spiders she knew lived in this same world, so none of them thought this was strange in any way. No one understood where the brightness came from or where it went. No one ever knew when it would come again, either.

One day, Leonidas went for a walk. She walked as far away from home as she had ever been which was not really very far. Other spiders were near there. When they saw Leonidas, they started to point and stare.
“Hey, look at that spider!” one of them said, “She only has 7 legs!”
“Whoa! That is weird!” said another. “How can she even walk?” said a third.
“She must have been born that way,” they continued. “I’ll bet her whole family is weird just like her.”
“They must be the Freak Family” said one of them, and they all laughed. Then they all started yelling and calling Leonidas a freak, and laughing at her.

Leonidas was very sad. She did not know what to do. She was used to them picking on her, but no one had ever talked about her family that way before. So, Leonidas started to walk away. Then she began running. She ran and ran until she could not hear them anymore. Only Leonidas forgot what direction she was running. When she stopped and looked around, she realized that she had run further away from home, not back to home. She was now farther away than she had ever been and did not recognize anything she saw. Leonidas was lost!

Everything around Leonidas was still dark. The darkness did not bother her. Spiders can see very well in the dark, but not very far. Spiders are not afraid of the dark. But Leonidas was still scared. She was scared because she was lost. She did not know which way to walk, but she decided she should keep walking no matter what. Maybe she would eventually see something she knew.

As she was walking, the world became bright suddenly. This was normal to Leonidas, but nothing she saw was normal. In the light, she could see a table behind her. Only it did not look like she expected it to look. The table was side-ways to her. Actually, as she looked up at, she could see across the top of the table. The legs of the table seemed to come out of the side of the table, rather than down from it as they normally do. She could also see things on the top of the table. They were sideways, too! Leonidas had never seen the top of a table before. On the table lay a hammer, a small saw, a screwdriver, and many containers. Some of the containers were big and some were small. Leonidas did not recognize anything inside the containers. It seemed like whatever they were, there was many of them. She did recognize the dust that was on the table, and the tools, and the containers. She also recognized the many small pieces of wood around everything. Leonidas had seen all of those things in her world before.

As Leonidas kept walking, she noticed that her world was going from dark to light more often than it usually did. She could still see the strange sideways table and everything on it as she looked around. Suddenly, the world was bright again and Leonidas looked for the table. It was not there! What she saw instead was a very blank area. In fact, it looked the same as the ground she had been walking on. Then, Leonidas looked up! There was the table! There were the tools! There were the containers, and the dust, and the wood pieces, too. Now they were above her. Leonidas had never seen that before!
“How did they get up there?” she wondered.

Leonidas kept walking. In front of her was something she had never seen before. It was a strange round shape, but not a circle. It rose up out of the ground and was bigger on the top than the bottom. It was very smooth all the way around. At the bottom was a round circle. The circle was bigger around than the smooth standing thing. Suddenly, the world got very bright! It was so bright and so sudden, that it took Leonidas a little while to realize that the smooth standing thing was the brightest thing around. It seemed to Leonidas that the brightness was coming from this smooth standing thing! She was amazed at such a wonderful sight. Then, suddenly, everything was black again. When she looked around, she could still see the smooth standing thing in front of her and the table above her. Leonidas very much wanted to tell other spiders what she had seen! Then she remembered that she was still alone, and still lost.

Leonidas walked around the smooth standing thing and kept walking. The world would sometimes get bright and sometimes dark, but never as bright as the smooth standing thing! This brightness seemed to come from in front of here, so she kept walking towards the brightness. As she looked ahead of her, she started to see something new. The shape was very different. It went up, then over, then up, then over… It kept doing this many times. As she walked closer, Leonidas could see the brightness make this shape light up and go dark, but she still did not know what it was.

Suddenly, Leonidas came to a great cliff. At least that is what it looked like to her. The shape she had been looking at seemed to come out of the cliff, still going up then over, up then over. Leonidas knew she could walk right down a cliff, and even back up the other side. All spiders can do that, she knew. She walked down the cliff and then over and on to the thing that went up and over, up and over. But, now she was standing on that thing. Now, it went over and down, over and down, over and down.
“How did that happen?” she wondered to herself. Now, she really wanted to tell other spiders what she had seen! She just had to find someone else! So, Leonidas kept walking.

As she walked across the thing that went over and down, the world got bright again. But, this time it was very different! All of the brightness seemed to come from a tall rectangle beside her! It was like a tall box of light! This was a very very bright light! As she looked through the box, out into the light, Leonidas could see far, far away. Everything in the box of light was very new and different than anything Leonidas had ever seen before. Also, she could see many more colors than she had ever seen. In front of her was a great big area that was the brightest and most wonderful green that Leonidas had ever seen. She quickly raced out towards it!

As she got near the green, Leonidas realized that the green was taller than she was, but not as tall as the table, and not as tall as the smooth standing thing, either. As she got closer, she realized that the green was actually many things that were standing up. They were all green from the bottom to the top. She also noticed that she could walk between them and around them. As she looked around, the light was no longer a box shape. It was no longer any shape! The brightness was all around her.

As she walked into and around the green standing things, the brightness went from being all around, to being behind her and above her. Leonidas kept walking further and further into the green standing things. When she turned and looked behind her, it became harder and harder to see the brightness behind her. But she could always see the brightness above her.

Then, out of the green standing things, came something Leonidas had never seen. It was not a spider, she knew that for sure! It was about the same size as she was, though. This thing walked and moved, much like a spider. Leonidas just stood still and watched it walk to her. She could see that it was mostly red, with black dots all over its back. Its back was a lovely round shape, and much shinier than a spider’s back.

When the red thing with black dots got closer, it noticed Leonidas. Leonidas just stood still and stared at it. She was more frightened now than ever before. But the red thing with black dots smiled at her and began to speak.

“Well, hello there!” it said. It sounded like a girl to Leonidas. More important, it sounded friendly.
“H..hh..hello,” Leonidas finally managed to say.
“My! You must be a spider of great renown!” The red thing with black dots said.
“What… what are YOU?” Leonidas asked.
“Why, I am a ladybug,” she explained, “My name is Hope. And I have never seen a spider like you. It is my great honor to meet you.” Then Hope bowed most gracefully to Leonidas. This made her feel like a queen!
“Why are you doing that?” Leonidas asked the ladybug.
“Because I am a mere insect,” she explained. “See? I have 6 legs, like all the other insects: flies, beetles, bees… But spiders are Arachnids!” Hope said the word “Arachnid” in a very special way. Leonidas knew that she meant that Hope admired them and had great respect for Arachnids.
“Arachnids have 8 legs! And you are a very special Arachnid… You have 7 legs. No other insect or arachnid has 7 legs!”
Leonidas' heart just swelled up inside her. She felt like beams of brightness came out from all over her. She never felt so wonderful in all her life. No one had ever said that having 7 legs was special!
“Oh, thank you!” “Thank you, thank you.” It was all Leonidas could think to say. She felt so radiant and beautiful.
“It was my great honor to meet you,” said Hope, and she bowed again.

Leonidas wanted to tell everyone all the great things she had seen today! She raced back out of the green standing things towards the light that shown faintly behind them. The light grew brighter and brighter as she ran through and around the green standing things.

When she reached the edge, she stopped dead in her tracks. In front of her, in the brightness that shows all around, Leonidas saw a person! She had seen a person before! Many times, a person had come into her world and taken other spiders away or chased them off. Leonidas had never seen a person be nice to a spider in all her life. If she thought she was scared before, this was even worse!

But, this person was different. For one thing, this person was small.
“Oh! Hello spider!” Leonidas heard the person say. She knew right away from the voice that this little person was a girl, too. The girl, reached out to Leonidas. Leonidas was so scared, she could not move. Many times she had seen a person reach for a spider and the spider disappeared forever. The little girl picked up Leonidas. Leonidas just closed her eyes and was all stiff over her whole body.

But, nothing happened. Leonidas slowly opened her eyes. She was looking right into the eyes of the little girl. And the little girl was smiling! Leonidas looked around and realized that she was standing on the little girl’s hand. The brightness was all around her.

“What a pretty spider!” The little girl spoke so sweetly and seemed to admire her just as much as Hope did.
“And you only have 7 legs! You are a really special spider!” Leonidas felt herself beaming again as if light was coming out all over her.
“And you are a very special person!” she said to the girl. But the girl did not say or do anything! She just kept looking at Leonidas and smiling.
“You are a very special person! Thank you for being nice to me!” Leonidas spoke more loudly this time. But the girl did not seem to hear. Leonidas decided that a person cannot hear a spider speak.

The little girl carried Leonidas through a box shape behind her. It was the same size and shape as the box she ran through, but this box shape was dark. When they went through it, it changed to a bright box again behind them. Leonidas could see the great green area behind them, also. The girl walked down the things that went over and down and over and down and Leonidas could see the cliff she saw before. The world got bright suddenly and Leonidas recognized the brightness was coming again from the smooth standing thing. Only, now the smooth standing thing was not standing, it was hanging. In front of them was the table. Leonidas could see across it again, but now she was beside it, rather than above it and the legs went down to the dust and wood pieces she knew.

The little girl walked a little further and lowered Leonidas to the ground. The world was a little bit darker than before, but still bright. Far in front of her, Leonidas could see the place she knew was home. She was just inside the farthest place she had ever been before today. Quickly, she ran off the girl’s hand towards home. As she ran, the world once again grew dark behind her. But, she was not really paying attention to anything behind her. Now she was close enough to home that she saw other spiders! She ran as fast as she could all the way home!

Later that night, safe at home, Leonidas tried to tell everyone of all the things she saw. But, they did not understand her. Some of the older spiders just smiled and would turn and look at each other and wink or nod. But no one said anything more. But, from that day forward Leonidas knew she was special! She never let it bother her again when young spiders would stare or laugh. She would just smile and think of Hope and the little girl and she would fill up like she was bursting with light all over again. It seemed like the more she smiled, the less the other spiders would stare and tease.

Leonidas spent the rest of her life feeling special. She was an Arachnid of Great Renown!