Читать книгу Spider - Andrea Baxcy - Страница 1

The girl Andrea Levern stretched her neck; she was trying to see through the large crowd of people gathered around the attraction at the country fair like a large flock of eager pheasants. She could only see a peek here and there between bodies moving out of their spots every now and then as the sounds of oohand huh(gasps) came from the nosey crowd of desperate onlookers. Suddenly, there was an obese man in the girl’s way, and any means of sight became totally blocked out. Frustrated, the child pushed her way through the busy bodied crowd and courageously made her way toward the front. The crowd began to part somewhat – it was enough for her to see what the others were gawking over. Standing in the midst of the crowd was an attractive Caucasian woman wearing bold, blush-red lipstick with shoulder length dark black, soft, wool hair that curled on the ends around her shoulders. She had dark hazel-yellow green eyes, and she wore a lovely tank top without straps.

The woman gave a sinister smile to everyone who looked at her, and especially to Andrea, or so she thought. It seemed as though this beautiful woman were staring particularly at Andrea Levern. The girl watched without a blink, for she was amazed she had never seen a woman so beautiful before other than her mother, Helen Ruth Levern. The woman’s upper features were perfect. Andrea watched the perfect, round balloon boobs and slim thighs and thin waist that curved in the perfect shape of an hourglass. The woman’s hands were pretty and slim; they were perfect, too. Andrea cast her eyes down on the women’s lower body and screeched in terror at the horrendous eight black widow spider legs belonging to the woman. The legs were attached to her, starting at the bottom of her belly. The hideous, creepy legs were a part of the woman who continued to watch everyone at the fair with a dark, sinister smile.

There was a young Hopi Indian standing close by the woman’s right side; he was her guide – her master. Andrea was shocked beyond words and she brought her hands up with a quick reflex and let them rest on her chest near the area of her heart. Terribly afraid of the figure before her, Andrea screamed until her voice could be heard no more; she turned to flee the attractive she-creature with the eight hideous spider legs and she saw a glimpse of the faces of the others filled with extreme excitement, pointing and urging the woman-thing on, but she remained silent. Andrea ran through the crowd that immediately parted for her like the red sea. Scared and shaken up, the girl longed so desperately to be home – and not her home in Baron’s Hollowpoint. She longed to be at home in her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts. There had been a pneumonia epidemic in 1968, and the Leverns fled to save their lives.

The sickness took the lives of many, and out of a population of five thousand beings that resided inside Salem, Massachusetts, only two thousand remained alive and suffered to recover from the illness that had swept through the town like a devil’s dust swept along by a bad wind storm. Helen and George Levern settled in Baron’s Hollowpoint with their daughter when she was six years old, just four years ago; Andrea Levern was nine years old now.

The girl fled the scene as if she were running from a ghost. Andrea dared not glance back over her shoulder for fear that she’d see the woman-thing running after her. Nearing the exit, Andrea nearly bumped into a tall, thin, handsome Caucasian man with slick black hair. The man was headed to the fair.

Andrea stopped for a second. The man spoke to her as if he were a cousin or uncle; he was munching on peanut m&m’s. The man read the fear in the girl’s eyes and knew exactly what she ran away from – the woman spider Ana Anansi, the most popular attraction at the fair.

“Isn’t she odd? Ana Anansi is the biggest she-spider in the world!” The man giggled, sounding a little nerdy. It lasted for only a second. He spoke up again. “Did you see those creepy spider legs? A-nd those hazel-yellow green eyes?! Oh gosh, she’s awful, so awful!” He shuddered slightly and moved past Andrea toward the fair, to the main attraction of Ana Anansi.

Andrea remained speechless. She was recovering from the shock of perceiving something so unusual, unearth like. Andrea ran off toward home where her parents were. It was just Andrea and her parents. She was the only child. Andrea lived on Stokes Drive in a cozy, two-story brick home. The girl had been eager to go to the fair, although she had been there on the first evening of the opening. She wanted to go again, especially tonight, since it was the last night of the fair. Andrea wasn’t anticipating this woman spider; she was used to seeing the circus or the evil kinevil motorcycle rider on the last night of the fair. The girl had several thoughts running through her mind. She wished so badly that she’d waited for her father to get home from work at the laundry cleaners. Then Andrea and her parents would have gone to the fair together, the same as they had on the fair’s opening night and parade. Andrea’s father would have protected her from the creepy woman spider. She wondered what the woman thought about the people surrounding her who stared at her with their mouths gaping open. She also wondered if the strange woman could talk, and if so, what she would say. Andrea was nearing home now, and she was relieved to be farther away from the fair and the woman spider. She would tell her parents about it once she was home.

“Mama, Papa, ooohhhhh, Mama!” Andrea cried, as if she had fallen and scraped her knees. “Help, oh, I saw her-it!” Andrea thought for a moment, trying to speak the correct word for what she had seen at the fair.

Helen Levern had nearly finished putting supper on the table as she replied, “Andrea, what is it that you’re babbling on about?”

George Levern hurried to clean his face at the kitchen sink, allowing the warm water to run slowly over his tired hands before he washed them. Helen placed the last dish on the table and pulled up a chair, joining her family at the supper table.

“I saw a big woman spider at the fair this evening,” Andrea said anxiously.

Andrea saw the look of bewilderment on her parents’ faces. Silence ensued for just a moment.

“You saw the devil’s wife,” George spoke boldly, and in between words, he continued to enjoy his supper – hearty beef stew and broccoli. George slurped tea from a glass mug and went back to eating like a healthy Paul Bunyan. “Her name is Ana Anansi, the biggest spider in the world, Andrea.”

George spoke as if he were proud of the she-spider Ana Anansi. “Ah, Ana Anansi has great beauty, and that is the trick, ey!”

“George, no more talks about the she-spider Ana Anansi. She’s great terror come to Baron’s Hollowpoint. Please, no more talk about her while we eat – it frightens Andrea. She will be scared to sleep in her bed tonight,” Helen said, greatly concerned for Andrea’s sake.

Andrea could not each much supper. The girl was afraid of the she-spider Ana Anansi; she feared that the spider would come for her, and possibly everyone in Baron’s Hollowpoint. Yet, the girl was filled with curiosity, for she was desperate to know if the woman spider was real, or if what she had seen was just a mean joke played by one of the townsfolk.

After supper ended, Helen washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. The kitchen was small and cozy with a wooden island with a checkerboard top sitting directly in the middle of the kitchen floor. There was even a medium-sized Irish-style fireplace that George and Helen let remain lit overnight every night of the week.

Once the house was quiet and her parents were fast asleep, Andrea slipped out of the house and hurried off into the night to the fairgrounds again.

The moment the girl arrived inside the fair, she saw the workers tearing down rides and tents all around her. Andrea looked a short distant from where she stood briefly before she moved on, seeing a long truck belonging to the fair. A few men who worked for the fair surrounded the truck. The men loaded the truck quickly; it was almost too quickly for Andrea to see what they were loading. Suddenly, one of them looked up and Andrea held her breath. For a second, she thought that one of the men had spotted her. Startled, Andrea quickly hid behind the nearest oak tree as the men continued to load the trucks.

A few feet away from the trucks, some men stood in a circle near a thick bush. They surrounded something, and one of them was wringing his hands together as if he were afraid that whatever the group was hiding might escape. Andrea was standing behind the tree a good distance from the scene, and it was hard for her to perceive the figures well enough to know who they were. Finally, the other men finished loading the trucks and moved to their vehicles, got in them, and drove away, following behind the drivers in the trucks. The men standing in a circle near the bush bickered with one another, trying desperately to get their point across to the other one. Their backs were turned to the girl, making it easy for her to ease out from behind the oak tree. Andrea noticed that the tree had bloomed, and it looked beautiful in the night underneath the moonlight. She eased just a bit closer so she could see and hear what was going on.

It must be close to midnight, thought the girl, because a shroud of thin mist began to rise off the ground. The mist always rises at midnight, Andrea thought as she stepped nervously out into the clearing. By now, she could see and hear everything going on. There was a male figure with gorgeous gray-white hair with silver streaks in it. He wore a white priest’s robe with a Catholic cross of caravan. The priest held a bottle of holy water in his right hand, his hand trembling slightly. A rosary necklace was wrapped around his fingers; the priest clutched the deep-red beaded necklace tightly. A fair-skinned man was standing a few steps from the priest; the man had a head full of dark, coarse hair. His hair was neat, cut in the shape of a neatly bobbed Afro. He was a black man, the janitor. Another man stood almost directly behind him who was Caucasian and the owner and manager of the fair. There was one more man, a short, slim man who stood out just a step in front of the others. His skin was red like anger. This was the Hopi Indian – the she-spider’s guide. The four men were angry and bickering at each other, not realizing that someone was watching them.

Andrea’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped open in surprise. She saw the woman spider Ana Anansi standing miserably in the midst of the circle of men. Ana Anansi wasn’t a mean joke made up by the townsfolk. Her pale-yellow skin, hair, hazel-yellow green eyes and her nose, mouth, teeth, boobs, stomach, thin waistline, and the horror of her all, those terrible, eight black widow spider legs were all very, very real! Andrea swallowed the lump in her throat, overcome with chills from fright. Ana Anansi bowed her head slightly and covered her eyes with her hands briefly. When she removed them, tears stained her creepy eyes. Ana Anansi shook her head slowly from side to side, looking down upon herself like she was a shameful abomination before God and all of humankind.

The men drove the loud trucks out of the fairgrounds, and they came to a complete stop before pulling out into the empty street. The men pressed down on the trucks’ breaks, making a screeching sound in the distance. The sound blocked out the noise of the conversation between the four men down by the big bush. As the trucks drove off and away from the fairgrounds, there was complete silence, and Andrea was able to hear the words spoken by the men.

“My people and I allow you to use our land for your fair every year in October.” Small Eagle’s tone was harsh, as he was angry. “You and your people bring all kind of attractions and we, the Hopi Indians, never complain to the white man. But when Hopi Indian bring beautiful and singing Ana Anansi, you point the finger at us and criticize us harshly and your cruel criticism hurts Hopi Indian and Ana Anansi. Tonight, you and your men say that I cannot bring Ana Anansi back to your fair anymore.” Small Eagle pointed his finger at the men, and they were sneering at him as if he were crazy. “You’re forgetting that this is Indian land, and that Indian was here in America first, white men!” Small Eagle finished speaking. His face was red, and he looked disappointed.

“This isn’t about who was here first, Small Eagle, and you know this! This is about Ana Anansi, and she is an abomination before God and in the eyes of the law!” The priest spoke out against the woman spider.

“Father Jeffrey is right, Small Eagle. Ana Anansi is very beautiful and she has the voice of an angel, but she is part spider and it makes her foul, poison, and deadly,” said the janitor in a baritone voice. “All the money Ana Anansi brought to the table tonight was the reason we continued to allow her to the show as the main attraction. I admit that we are wrong, and may God forgive us.” Mitch ended his words and backed behind Father Jeffrey slightly.

“Small Eagle, you must never bring Ana Anansi here to Baron’s Hollowpoint again. She is sin, iniquity, and a deadly beast! Such a creature as Ana should not be allowed to remain living on earth!” Raven Baxcy bellowed; he owned the fair.

Father Jeffrey doused each side of the woman spider with holy water. Ana Anansi placed her hands over her ears and shook her head in disagreement.

“That which is evil must be destroyed!” Father Jeffrey said as he doused the bottle of holy water out in front of Ana Anansi. It fell in sprinkles around the front part of Ana Anansi’s eight black widow spider legs.

“No!” she screamed. The sound was like a cry of a banshee.

“Your Ana Anansi must be destroyed, Small Eagle. She is not of God. She is of spider!” Father Jeffrey scorned.

“Leave her, and let the vampires handle Ana Anansi,” Mitch provoked.

“No, Ana Anansi is a spider, and vampires cannot control spiders. The spider is poison, and their poison is acid. It will eat through vampires and destroy them!” Raven warned.

“No one is destroying my Ana Anansi! If you and your men try to harm her, there will be war on these fairgrounds tonight,” Small Eagle said. “Be warned that Ana Anansi is strong, and she can break you and your men in half with one hand!”

“Whoa now, just because you and your darn people arrived in America first don’t mean that you can run over us. You might own the land, but the town and the fair belong to the white man. Ana Anansi is a prospect of evil, and any being of evil or of the devil cannot be allowed to live,” Raven said. Small Eagle was becoming angrier by the minute.

“She will be destroyed on the fairgrounds tonight and if you try to stop us, we’ll destroy you too, Small Eagle,” Mitch assured him.

“In the Bible, the ten commandments state that thou shalt not kill!” Small Eagle cried out, trying to deliver Ana Anansi from the hand of death.

“Tell us, Small Eagle – before we destroy your beautiful she-spider Ana Anansi, how did she come to be this way?” Raven questioned. Father Jeffrey and Mitch stood quietly, anticipating an answer from Small Eagle.

Without warning, Ana Anansi spoke in an Indian tongue. She spoke words that Father Jeffrey, Raven, and Mitch did not understand. They were in total confusion as to what Ana was speaking; her voice trembled as she spoke. Ana Anansi’ voice sounded of warning, persecution, humiliation, and great pain! Father Jeffrey cried out to God in the Biblical Hebrew tongue, making a cross as he doused holy water from the bottle, emptying the last few drops from the bottle onto the ground in front of Ana Anansi.

Raven looked around him for something, a weapon to destroy Ana Anansi with.

Mitch spoke up: “Small Eagle, what does she speak to us?” Mitch seemed worried and slightly fearful.

Ana Anansi broke into song; her voice was beautiful and it was Irish. Ana’s singing nearly made the men forget that what was standing before them wasn’t at all evil, but sweet as an angel. Her voice nearly drew them to follow and believe in the spider. Father Jeffrey’s praying broke the hold Ana’s voice held over the men.

Andrea watched carefully as Ana removed a small bag from the inside of her boobs and began eating the creepy content inside the bag. She ate one piece at a time, humming a different tune. Her voice was amazing. Andrea almost became ill when she saw what Ana Anansi was eating. It was a small popcorn bag filled with fried horseflies! Disgusted and nauseated, Andrea turned her head away for a brief moment while the feeling of nausea passed. She turned and watched the scene again and saw that Ana had downed the bag of fried horseflies. Small Eagle resumed talking.

“Some centuries ago,” Small Eagle began with a heavy sigh. He was becoming weary of fussing with the men over Ana Anansi. “In Dublin, Ireland, in its days of old, a young teenage Irish girl became a wiccan witch, and this type of witch is believed by many to be the most powerful witch of all witches. The practice is white magic. Sahara Collins wanted desperately to become the leader of her occult, and she’d do anything to gain the title of head witch.”

Small Eagle paused briefly before he continued talking, regardless of Ana Anansi’s continual singing. She was attempting to coax them out of their wrath. “So many of them bit the head off a living chicken or turned lesbian and sexually pleasured each other or dogs during the ritual ceremonies. Sahara Collins did something that the other witches feared to do the most. She mated with a crab man. He lived in an underground house near in sea. Sahara Collins bore a child with the crab man, and that child is Ana Anansi.”

Small Eagle made his voice sound dark and dangerous. “Ana Anansi was born half human and half black widow spider, and what Sahara did gained her the title of head witch. Sahara Collins was very beautiful, but she was so stubborn. She was the daughter of Beth Collins and Chief Stan Shah of the Hopi Indian tribe. Once the Indian chief discovered that his daughter had committed such a filthy act and bore a halfling baby by the crab man, Chief Stan Shah sent for Sahara at once, and before she went to her father, Sahara made me promise to take care of her precious Ana Anansi. For Sahara knew that her father would kill her for doing such dark acts. Sahara begged me to protect Ana Anansi and never let a being harm one hair on Ana’s head, and I swore on my life that I would take care of Ana Anansi and protect her always.”

Ana Anansi continued to sing song after song, and Small Eagle continued to speak. “As a punishment for Sahara’s dark sin, the chief Indian had Sahara burned to death over a stack of puck wood.”

Small Eagle swore solemnly and waited silently for a response.

Ana Anansi sang, raising her voice. It sounded of compassion and love. The expression on Ana’s face was the emotion of one wanting desperately to be forgiven for a wrong committed, and for what she was: spider, beast, halfling… the supernatural. She was no longer the beautiful human woman she once was before, selling her soul to the devil. He had now become her spouse and named her the lady of spiders, the spider queen.

Father Jeffrey quickly crossed himself thrice. His hands trembled and they ached, for he was old. He made a sign of the cross at Ana Anansi, slow and easy-like. The priest put up a seal of protection between them, and he began to recite the virgin Mary prayer.

“Virgin Mary, the Lord is with thee. Bless the wombs of all mothers living on earth.”

Father Jeffrey stood before Ana Anansi. The priest stood firm before Small Eagle and Ana. He was unwavering, and he finished the virgin Mary prayer and kissed the beautiful priest ring worn on his middle left finger.

The woman spider continued singing in her beautiful Irish voice. Soon, she began to sing in English.

“Oh my precious, perfect babies, you

are my life and I will love you forever!

Only the hands of death will depart us

from each other.”

“Tell us, Small Eagle,” the janitor inquired; he was of a very curious mind. “Where are the babies that Ana Anansi sings to?” The men became quiet.

“Ana Anansi became pregnant by a man right in this town of Baron’s Hollowpoint, and you three are willing to take away the life of my sweet Ana Anansi?! You want to take her away from her precious babies that need and love Ana so very much?” Small Eagle said as Ana’s voice mellowed in the background.

“Hell spell’s, the babies must be found and destroyed. They are evil, an abomination the same as their mother!” Father Jeffrey warned. He angrily raised his voice. “Look at her. She’s part woman and part spider! This is not from God; it is from Lucifer himself, and yes, Small Eagle, Ana and her seeds must die.”

Trembling, Father Jeffrey prayed a silent prayer of protection over the town, Raven, Mitch, and himself.

“Who was it, Indian? Who is the human that Ana Anansi slept with?” Raven asked violently.

“Paul Yellows, the organist.”

“Blame dangit. I can’t believe Paul did something so foul,” Mitch said.

“Believe it because it’s true, black man,” Small Eagle answered.

“It is an act of abomination!” Father Jeffrey bellowed in anguish. “Ana Anansi is big sin, a big, creepy, eight-legged whore! She will never be accepted in God’s sight, nor will Ana Anansi be accepted by the human race. Paul Yellows will suffer for the sinful act he did, and Ana Anansi must die tonight before she has the chance to bring any more of her wicked seeds into the world,” Father Jeffrey spoke out.

Small Eagle attacked Raven and Mitch, and the men fought hard against the Indian. Father Jeffrey bellowed out in prayer at the onset of the battle. Small Eagle was overcome by a blow to his right temple by Mitch. He was instantly knocked unconscious.

Ana Anansi sung continuously, striving to bribe her way out of being killed. Father Jeffrey, Raven, and Mitch began to close in on Ana, and she whimpered over her collapsed caretaker, Small Eagle; he lay in a heap on the ground, and rage built up inside Ana Anansi. Ana stopped singing and screamed madly; she came at the men baring her index spider fang teeth, which looked similar to canine teeth. Father Jeffrey held Ana off of them using holy water, and each time he doused her with it, she screamed bloody hell. Holy water stung her skin like she was being whipped across her back with a sticker brie tree. Raven grabbed a large piece of firewood from over in the corner near some hedge bushes. He swung at Ana Anansi hard and missed; he tried again, and Ana grabbed the firewood and broke it in two like it was nothing. Mitch swung away at Ana Anansi’s back side, hitting her every now and then. Father Jeffrey discovered an axe hidden within the hedge bush and he called to Raven, who retrieved the axe quickly.

“Raven, Mitch, Ana Anansi is evil, no good!” Father Jeffrey yelled out to them. “She’s from hell and bound to Lucifer as his wife. Ana Anansi and her children will rule Baron’s Hollowpoint with an iron fist, and this town and its people will become her slaves! Kill her now, right now – you must burn the body and axe the head, and Ana Anansi will live no more!” Father Jeffrey commanded.

The priest was old, in his sixties, and the sight of Ana Anansi should have caused him to suffer a stroke or even a heart attack. The priest’s faith and belief in God was strong, and had saved him each time he was faced with evil presence. Mitch pulled the lighter from his pocket and looked directly into Ana’s face; she spat a spider web faster than a bolt of lightning. She caught Mitch up in the large web, and in a split second, Ana Anansi held Mitch in her right hands. Trembling with fear, he screamed and begged Ana Anansi for mercy, but her anger over what the men did to her caregiver Small Eagle had the best of her. Ana Anansi wore a simple round wedding band on her third left finger with an encrusted black widow spider wrapped around the band. Instantly, Ana broke Mitch’s neck without any thought. Father Jeffrey and Raven were left to battle the woman spider now. Raven almost became sick after he witnessed seeing Mitch’s neck broken and thrown to the ground in front of him and Father Jeffrey. Nearly fainting, the priest began to pray again.

“Raven, cast me the axe and quickly do as I say,” Father Jeffrey shouted to Raven and he did. “Burn the body now, Raven!” the priest readied the axe using all his strength. Ana Anansi screamed a war cry as her body collapsed to the ground, and with a mighty swing, Father Jeffrey quickly severed the head of Ana Anansi. She screamed in terror, until at last Ana’s scream died away, but the expression of terror remained on her face. Ana Anansi’s hazel-yellow green eyes remained open, and the rest of Ana Anansi burned on the ground, until the ashes of her body turned smutty black. Ana Anansi’s head was buried inside Shade Crypts Cemetery. Terrified, Andrea fled the scenery. The gruesome murder she witnessed on the fairgrounds that night would haunt Andrea for a long time.