Ro and the Spider

Ro was only three but already she had fallen in love with spiders and their magical silky webs. She could spot a spider web from a distance and would insist that everyone pause and look at web she had spotted. Being only three there were many things about the world she had yet to figure out and despite her precocity and large vocabularly she was like all small children living in a dream like state where reality and imagination were often entertwined.

Nothing captured this strange childhood phase we all go through like Roen's decision that strings were dogs. She had seen dogs on the end of leashes and although she knew what a dog was, in her second year of life she decided that she could drag a string behind her and call it her dog or woofie. The woofy's traits were determined by the string. Long strings were big woofies. Small strings were little woofies. Black strings were black woofies and blue strings were blue woofies of course.

There is something so joyful about watching the emergence of this imaginary world in a small child. Because at the same time the child's brain is growing at an exceptionally fast pace and they are learning new things about the world all the time. They are sponges when it comes to learning information about anything they are interested in. She was a lucky girl because she had a collection of adults who all loved her and contributed to this magical phase in her life, including her Grandmother Jo.

Now Grandma J, as she was called, was also an artist and she had baskets full of craft material all over her house. In one room was a sewing box, or as Ro called it "the button box" , Grandma J had collected from her parent's house before they moved from their house to a senior living facility. The sewing box had been Jo's grandmother's and she had fond memories of playing with it when she was a small child. It was a mahogany brown wood box with a handle and curved sides. One might say it was a bit tacky, but Jo loved it. There were two small drawers on the bottom. One of those drawers had holes for spools of sewing thread on the top. The spools of thread in the holes had been purchased from old fashioned stores like Woolworths for as little as .25 cents. The polyester thread was still remarkably strong for being almost 80 years old. And Jo could not bring herself to throw it out, even though she would probably never use the thread for anything. They reminded her too much of a time when life was simple and one could buy things they needed on main street. Now the main street where she grew up only seemed to contain banks and hair dressors.

Ro came to Grandma J's house in the mornings so her parents could work from home. Because of the newest global pandemic there was no storytime, preschool or playdates. The two would spend a second long winter together. Although everyone had hoped life would go back to normal in November the situation became so bad that those lucky enough to be free to stay home did. New diseases were emerging rapidly due to climate change and governments continued to flounder in their efforts to get them under control.

One snowy day in winter Grandma J was working on a drawing. She had a strange obsession with tools and had done prints and drawings and paintings of all sorts of tools, including the many scissors she had. Her husband would just role his eyes at the large numbers of scissors Jo would pile and arrange into still life for her creations. She would often try to work while Ro played behind her and this day was no exception. Ro was busy in her imaginary world talking and playing. Grandma J loved drawing while she listened to her granddaughter's chatter. The snow was falling heavily and grandpa was in his office working with the door shut.

"It's a bus. Yes woofy. No I am going to get you a cookie. We can play. Oh here is another Woofy" And then the babble continued but it got quieter and less distinct. Grandma J knew if she turned around she would break the magic and so she continued to work. It is unclear how much time passed but when Jo finally did turn around she saw a sight that made her shiver. Ro had taken out the fine polyester Woolworth thread and wove a web of tangled thread that was now strangling her around her neck. Her face was starting to turn blue. Jo immediately grabbed the scissors from her still life and started to cut the toddler free. Roen gasped and Grandma J wrapped her in her arms and held her trying to quell the desire to scold the small child for doing something so dangerous.

After that incident Grandma J taught Ro about the carnivorous nature of spiders and how they trap their pray in their silky webs. They spent many an afternoon looking for webs which had flies or beetles entangled in them. Ro continued to love spiders and strings continued to be "Woofys" because children don't really care if they scared their grownups. The incident was quickly forgotten and she moved on to new dangers like climbing to the top of the climber and swinging as high as she could. But Grown ups don't forget so easily and Jo finally tossed the old sewing threads and their memories in the trash and now the button box only contains buttons and some yard length bits of ribbon for Roen to use as her doggies.