Carla's Web

Prologue

Life is like a ticket of cobwebs…….you’ll never know what you’re gonna get. So do give the unknown a try.

____________________________________________________

Carla spun her web on the branch of a tree in the middle of a dense forest, conjuring a complex network of threads that only a spider could.

She stopped momentarily and peered at her work, which she wove to stand for all her life choices. She found a little fork. There it was, glaring at her, right in the middle. One pointed to a bright green leaf that left her mouth spilling over with saliva, while the other disappeared into a thicket.

In her reverie, she didn’t notice a moth, wings prophetically expanded, flying by her side. “Choose wisely,” it said, “Your next meal may depend on it.”

____________________________________________________

Carla, as it turned out, hadn’t eaten for two days. Competition for nourishment in the forest was fierce, so it didn’t take her too long to decide which path to take. She headed straight for the bright green leaf.

She glanced at the dew droplets on the surrounding leaves, noticing her reflection growing fuller. Satisfied, she ambled back to the fork in the road.

And found herself right where she started. But that wasn’t the only tangle in the web, as it were; she met her friend the moth again.

But its appearance had shifted; its wings had become darker, duller, heavier.

“What happened to you?” Carla asked it.

“Carla, it’s you. You.” It answered rather faintly.

Carla paused, taken aback. After a while, she put her mandible on what the moth referred to - her choice to walk the path to the green leaf had weighed the moth down. She couldn’t return to the fork in her web now; she was destined to stay in the bright path’s limbo, her comfort destined to cause immeasurable pain.

____________________________________________________

Frustrated, Carla wandered into a dark thicket. it was dense, unfamiliar -the frightened spider didn’t know where she was.

She twisted her eight legs and roamed around aimlessly., all the time sensing dark shadows.

“Here” She heard whispers that caused her to pry around the darkness. And.....

More cobwebs, and spiders. And each of those pointed to green leaves- not one, but at least a hundred.

Carla felt a slight breeze. It was the Wise Moth, flapping its wings, now less dense. They also seemed...brighter.

“You’ll meet more cobwebs and spiders in those dark thickets. Why don’t you forage for insects over there?”

____________________________________________________

Carla spun a new web, but one without a fork. It led straight into the dark thicket of spiders and their webs.