My friend Betty

  “Hi Charlie,” I heard from behind me.  I lay on my back watching the plants from the dirt between the bushes in the back garden.  I turned around and saw her looking at me.

  “Hi Charlie Moore,” she said.

  “You're not going to hurt me, are you?  How do you know my name?” I asked. 

  “I'm not going to hurt you.  Every day I see you playing in the yard, I even go to see you when you are in your room.  I have lived in your garden almost all of my life!” she exclaimed.

  “How come you can talk just like me?” I asked suspiciously.

  “My name is Betty  and I can speak to anybody I want!” she replied.  

I sat cross-legged looking interested.  Betty was a spider, a large and hairy one, the largest I have ever seen. 

  “Do you know Harold, my dog? I asked.

  “Of course,” she laughed.

  “We have long conversations about you and your parents all the time, we are good friends," explained Betty.

  “Wow,” I nodded, “I didn’t know!”

My mom is a teacher at my school, grade three, and my dad works in an office downtown.  I don’t know what he does there.  He goes to work every day wearing a suit and carrying a brown suitcase full of pens and interesting stuff.  Mom, she is the best, we walk to school every morning.   We have lunch together in the playground and she always gives me advice that I don't always follow.   I'm in grade one.

I play in the garden most of the time.  I have a fort between the bushes that I made with plastic and wooden boxes.  I can play there when it rains, but not when it rains too much.  I like to imagine that I am in the jungle, in faraway places that I saw in movies and on TV.  I don’t watch much TV because my Mom doesn’t like it and I have better things to do.  I like to slide on my back on top of a rag.  I push around with my legs.  It's fun to see everything from the floor up, it’s different but the same.

  “I think you are an interesting boy,” Betty said.

  “I've watched you for a long time now, that's why I want to be your friend.”

  “What kind of spider are you Betty?” I asked.

  “Do you have parents here in the backyard? Do you have brothers and sisters?"

  "I don’t," she said.

  “Unfortunately no Charlie, I am here by myself.  I was brought in a plane quite some time ago.  I ended up in the house of a man who kept me in a glass cage. One day I escaped from the cage.  I ran as fast as I could to find your house and decided to hide in your backyard because it is the one with the most bushes like where I come from.”

  “That’s great!” I said,

  “Now we can be best friends and I can protect you Betty.”

  “You and Harold will be my best friends.  How come Harold doesn’t talk to me Betty?” I asked.

  “Why don’t you ask him?” Betty said.

  “Good idea!” I said,

  “Where do you live? I mean where do you sleep? Do you have a house... like...a place to sleep?” I asked her.

  “In a burrow that I dug below those bushes there at the back,” she replied.

  “I look for food at night.”

 

  “Sometimes at night I climb up to your window and see you reading books.  I like the books you read.  Sometimes I see you going to bed and falling asleep,” Betty said.

  “I would like to sleep in your bedroom with you.” This was getting very interesting I thought.  Can I tell Mom about Betty? Dad for sure not, he will get mad and he will put Betty in a cage again.  I wouldn’t like that at all and making dad change his mind is very hard.

Betty is a big spider with lots of hair all over.  Her fur, if you can say that because I don’t know what to call the hair of a spider, is brown with some orangey stripes. Betty is a nice spider, she calms me down.  We talked for a long time, my legs got numb.

  “I have to go now Betty, my legs are hurting. It was nice meeting you and I will call you a bit later to play if you are not busy,” I said.  Betty said ok and I went inside.

Harold was sleeping close to my Dad’s brown cozy chair in the family room.  When I came in he looked at me with his friendly face.

  “Hey Harold,” I said.

  “I met Betty in the back just now, she told me that you are her friend too!” Harold came to me, wagging his small tail and rubbed his nose on my leg.