One rainy, spring day, I was in my room sketching a self portrait of myself just for a lack of boredom.
As I was drawing out the eyes for my sketch, a deep voice said out of nowhere, “Nice sketch,” I gave a little jump; my heart stopped beating. My older brother, Henry, was dressed up as a mascot, but what bothered me was that it was a spider uniform. “Get that off!!” I screamed. I had arachnophobia, an intense fear of spiders, causing me to feel uncomfortable when I saw one. “Come on, Maggie, it’s just a mascot spider.” Henry said, trying to cool me down. “Just get it off!” I yelled at him, arrogantly. “Alright, fine.” he said, feeling disappointed due to the failure of his surprise. He lifted the spider head up and exited the room with his head down. I sighed, feeling unhappy with myself. I wanted to take back the things I yelled at Henry and replace them with happy statements. Feeling upset in myself, I decided to go to the restroom to wash my face, thinking I might feel more relaxed.
When I walked into the restroom, my eyes widened; an eight-legged creature was sitting on the bottom of the sink, its brown eyes staring right back at me. It was a spider. I gave a short, quick shriek as I recognized the insect. I immediately closed the restroom door and ran out of my room. “Mom, Dad, Henry?” I called worriedly. I heard the voices of my parents and brother in the backyard. “Oh no,” I mumbled under my breath. There wasn’t time to go downstairs and call them, which meant I had to face the spider myself.
I went back to my room again, wearing disposable gloves and carrying a roll of tissues. I opened the restroom door again to see the spider in the sink. I gave a small wince until I decided to be courageous to face my fear. It wasn’t like the spider was poisonous and would kill me. I held out my finger as the spider looked at it curiously. It happily jumped on and sat still as the Statue of Liberty. I was surprised at what I was doing and quickly ran downstairs. I opened the main door into my front yard. I placed the spider on a zinnia and smiled at it. I don’t know if I was imagining it or not, but I felt like the spider smiled back at me.