The following is a short story from Daris Howard, an award-winning, syndicated columnist, playwright, and author. To visit his website, CLICK HERE. 

With her husband gone, finances were getting tight, so Janine started looking for a job. A job offer came, but she would have to move to a southern state. That was tempting for two reasons. First, the cold winters and deep snow had been hard on her the year before, and second, one of her sons, Michael, lived there.

She thought about the pluses and minuses both ways. She did have family where she was, and she would be further from them. Her thoughts went back and forth, but finally she thought she might make the move because it would be nice to live in a warmer climate.

Having never lived in a southern state, she wondered if there might be some disadvantages she hadn’t thought about. Michael invited her to come for a visit.

“Mom,” he said, “come and stay with us in the summer for a while and see what it is like when the heat is at its peak. Then come back in the winter and see how nice it is when it is cold up north.”

Janine thought that was a good idea, so she packed her bags and made the trek. As she climbed from her car at Michael’s house, the humidity and heat hit her with full force. In short order, her hair had gone limp, and her clothes were sticking to her body. However, she went into her son’s lovely, air-conditioned house, and the challenge of the heat faded from her memory.

She enjoyed her days, working in Michel’s yard in the early mornings and late evenings, retreating into the cool of the house during the hottest part of the day. After a few weeks there, she felt she could handle the heat she had been so concerned about.

Janine went back home and started getting her house in shape to sell. She was sure there couldn’t be a downside to living in the south during the cold months. However, her family suggested she check it out in the winter first. She agreed, even though her mind was made up.

Michael and his family were glad to welcome her again. She stepped from her car and noted how pleasant it was. She had left temperatures near zero, and here it was around sixty. Many people wore coats, but she was acclimated to the cold and only wore a light sweater.

She had been there a couple of days when her son said he planned to move the children’s playhouse from down near the wooded area up nearer the house. She volunteered to help.

They each went to an end of it. Janine thought it had the most awesome netting from the top of the playhouse down to the ground.

“What do the kids use this for?” Janine asked, reaching out to touch it.

“Mom, don’t touch that,” Michael yelled, but it was too late. Her hand was wrapped in the gooey webbing. “That’s not part of the playhouse,” he said. “That’s a spider web.”

“But it’s more than six feet tall!” Janine said, trying to pull her hand from it.

“The spider has been spinning it for a long time, while the children didn’t play out here due to the heat,” Michael said.

Janine attempted to dislodge the web from her hand, but it wrapped around her arm. In trying to get it off her arm, she got her whole self wrapped in it.

Michael suddenly spoke sharply. “Mom, don’t move! The spider is on your back.”

Janine didn’t even scream. She couldn’t. The scream had frozen in her throat. But when Michael moved to help her, and she felt the spider crawl onto her hair, her scream exploded as she ripped off her sweater. As Michael removed the spider, the biggest snake Janine had ever seen slithered out of the foliage. When Michael pulled the spider away, to Janine, in her frenzied state, it looked to be about the size of a plate. And then, a giant cockroach dashed out of the playhouse between her feet, and she screamed again.

Michael said, “It’s just a little cockroach.”

“Little!” Janine exclaimed. “I could just about have saddled it and ridden it.”

Janine ended up not taking the job. Maybe living in the north with the brutal winters wasn’t so bad. At least creepy critters didn’t have enough of a warm season to grow too big.