The Barn

by Scott Thigpen

  Mike jumped onto the bales of hay and pulled himself up onto the rafters. He quickly climbed to the highest point of the barn and edged over to the side of the barn nearest their home. On that wall, almost at the roof line was a small door. about eighteen inches square. When the barn was used to dry tobacco, this door was a way of getting ventilation into the barn. Now it was used as a spyhole, to see if anyone was in the backyard of their home. Mike slowly edged the small door open a crack and peered out. Mike saw that Pops had pulled the lawn mower out and it was sitting near the back door but noone was in sight. Mike figured that Pops was checking out the mower and was sure he and Ronnie would be mowing the grass tomorrow.

  Ronnie wasn't a good climber and rarely even climbed onto the slats. He had climbed onto the top layer of hay and was watching Mike. 'Pops outside?'

  'Nope, but he was checking on the mower, guess what we're doing tomorrow?'

  With a sigh, Ronnie said 'Mowing. Great. Probably have to do Grannie's yard, too.'

  'Yeah, probably. It's getting dark, let's head in. I'm getting hungry', said Mike as he edged along the slat towards the top rows of the hay. As he stepped off onto the hay, the bale slipped and Mike went headfirst into the pile of hay. Mike hit the piled up hay and a second later, popped up, tearing at his shirt with a frantic look on his face.

  Ronnie looked at saw hundreds of spiders, some maybe three inches long, crawling all over him and streaking out of the hay.

  'MIKE!', Ronnie screamed and jumped down the 'stairs' of the hay bales. Mike had gotten his shirt off and was spinning around, trying to get the spiders off and as Ronnie raced over to him, he saw the welts appearing all over Ronnies exposed body. As if in slow motion, Ronnie saw a spider, it must have been three inches long, crawl over Mikes nose and bite Mike's cheek hard enough to draw blood. Mikes shirt looked like it was made out of spiders. There were so many crawling over him.

  'MIKE!!!', Ronnie screamed again as he grabbed his brother by the arm and pulled him towards the door of the barn, thinking only to get him out of the barn and to Pops, whipping or not, Pops would fix it.

  Ronnie took a slap to the face as Mike continued to flail but Ronnie was able to get a solid hold and started to pull his brother away from the mass of spiders crawling all around the dark area of the barn. Ronnie was wailing in a pained moan. Ronnie tried to smash or brush as many spiders off Mike as he could, while at the same time dragging Mike towards the door.

  The boys bumped into the door, which was latched from the outside. The latch was a simple 8 inch piece of a broom handle with a nail through the middle, nailed to the wall near the door. Twist the latch, the door opens. Ronnie realized the door was latched and yelled in anger. He slammed into it and felt it start to give.

  Suddenly the door flew open and Pops was standing there. 'What in the HELL are you doing in here?' in his most you-are-in-big-trouble voice. However, it took him a split second to realize there was a huge problem. He grabbed both boys and heaved them out of the barn, slammed the door and latched it. Looking at Mike, who was now nearly unconcious and swollen with welts, he grabbed the boy in his arms and ran towards the house, with Ronnie crying and trying to explain what had happened right behind him.

  Pops flew into the house and yelled 'GODDAMMIT JEANNIE, CALL DR. WARD AND TELL HIM TO GET OVER HERE!!!' The boy's Mom was smart enough to grab the phone on the wall and start calling, even as she tried to figure out what was wrong. She saw Mike in her Husband's arms and saw the bite marks and welts before Dr. Ward picked up. She had Dr. Ward on the way in about two minutes and was just that quickly at her son's side. Pops quickly told her what he knew and Ronnie told them both how Mike was covered in spiders and that's what caused the bites.

  Mike's mother got some Benadryll out of the medicine cabinet and get Mike to take a dropperfull but Mike was still nearly unconcious. Pops loosened his pants and pulled them off, swatting dead a few spiders that were still hidden inside, getting a cry of alarm from Mom.

  Dr. Ward pulled into the driveway quickly since he lived on the other side of the small country neighborhood. Dr. Ward was a good country Doctor, who didn't waste lots of time messing around. He had heard the words Mike, spiders and bit and had grabbed his bag and was out the door and on his way almost before Mom had hung the phone up.

  It took Dr. Ward a little time but after a while Mike was stable and sleeping somewhat peacefully. Dr. Ward had seen the dead spiders on the floor that Pops had killed and stated they looked like common Wolf spiders.

  'Wolf spiders, but as far as I know, they don't mass up like these did and that one,' he said, pointing at a dead spider that was over two inches long,' is bigger than any I have ever seen. Very strange. Good thing is that they aren't poisonous, their bites just hurt a little. So Mike's hurts a lot but the issue is he was in shock. He is terrified of spiders, right?', Dr. Ward noted the affirmative nods and continued,' Well, I gave him something to relax, so he'll probably sleep all night and most of tomorrow, too. Give him Benadryll again in three hours and let him rest. Keep an eye on him and I'll check in tomorrow. Call me if anything happens.' And with that, Dr. Ward left.

  The boy's Mom sat on the bed next to Mike. Pops mumbled something about moving the mower and left the room. Ronnie felt horrified at what had happened and felt useless in Mike's room. He went to get another cool cloth for Mike's forehead and after handing it to his Mom, he decided to go find Pops and tell him how sorry he was for being in the barn

  He found his Dad sitting on the back steps, familiar Solo cup in hand, the bottle of bourbon next to him on the steps. Ronnie sat down next to his Dad, who was staring silently at the tobacco barn. He sat still for a minute or longer, then finished his drink and said, 'I ought to burn that damn barn down. I've said it before and today was almost true but one of you kids is going to get seriously hurt in there.'

  Refilling the solo cup, Pops went on, 'Never heard of spiders grouping up like that. Ever. Damndest thing. Ronnie, how many were there? More?'

  Trying to remember, Ronnie said, 'Pops, there was a ton of them. The floor of the barn was covered in them. They were crawling all over Mike, He tried to take his shirt off but I...I saw one bite onto his neck!' And Ronnie let out a sob and buried his head on his Dad's shoulder. Pops held him in a tight hug until he slowly quieted down and Pops held the boy's face in his hands and looked him in the eye.

  'Listen, son, I don't want you going anywhere near that barn until we figure out what to do, you hear? I don't even want you in the backyard tomorrow. Something's not right and I'm going to figure out what to do about it, ok? Mike's going to be ok and in a day or two, he'll be good as new and you guys can go shoot your BB guns again. But not near the barn.'

  Ronnie didn't hear the last sentence Pops said. He was thinking that Mike's BB gun was in the barn

  Ronnie nodded acknowledgement but he did plan on going to get his brother's BB gun.

  Chapter Five

  The next morning, Ronnie woke up and went to check on his brother. Mike was sleeping and his Mom shushed him out of the room. She did tell Ronnie that Mike had woken up a little while before and was ok, but tired still from the medication and he needed rest. Ronnie was relieved to hear Mike would be ok so he wandered into the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal and to plan his day.

  By the time he had finished his bowl of Froot Loops, he knew what he needed to do.Walking through the living room to his bedroom, he saw that his Mom was still in Mike's room. In his own room, he quickly found his flash light and placed it in the waist band of his hand me down Levis. With a tshirt and flannel shirt over the flashlight, Ronnie thought it would be hard to see. He walked over to Mike's room and quietly told his Mother he was going outside, maybe to the creek.

  Mom looked at her youngest son in alarm and made him promise not to go near the barn. Ronnie looked his Mother in the eye and lied and said he would not go near the barn. Ronnie grabbed his BB gun and headed out the front door. Leaping off the front porch he circled around back of th
e house to the carport Pops had built. He noticed Pops poop brown Ford was gone. The wall of the carport was full of shelves and after a very quick search. Ronnie pulled out a half used roll of duct tape and he quickly made his way back to the front of the house. He then walked down the dirt road in the direction of the creek.

  Fifty yards down the road, Ronnie stepped off the road and into the woods, to head back to the barn. Soon the barn was in sight and Ronnie stopped. Ripping off a strand of duct tape he taped the legs of his jeans to his Chucks, then taped his shirt sleeves tight. He then tucked in his flannel shirt, hoping this would keep any spiders from getting inside his clothes too easily. He didn't plan on spending very long in the barn, only the few seconds it would take to grab his brother's gun.

  Chapter Six

  Creeping to the back entrance of the barn, Ronnie had to fight the desire to veer to the right and run home. But he continued to inch closer to the barn, looking everywhere at once, looking for spiders. In the bright morning sun, he didn't see any, and soon he was at the rear entrance to the barn. He stopped and took out the flashlight. Turning it on, he aimed the yellow beam inside.

  The light helped Ronnie see inside the barn. The floor outside the area framed by the bales of hay was mostly clean, only a bit of hay was strewn about. Ronnie saw Mikes T shirt that he had ripped off near the hay bales directly in front of him about fifteen feet inside the barn. Ronnie saw three spiders crawling over the mostly clear floors, all small ones. He also saw several smeared spider carcasses from their escape the day before.

  Ronnie saw Mike's gun, leaning against the bale of hay that made the point of the backwards L, it was leaning against the bale closest to the wall, about four feet seperated the wall from the wall of hay bales. Ronnie tried to see into the dark corner of the barn but was not able to see much.

  Ronnie slowly took a step into the barn, his bb gun ready and pointing down at the floor, the flashlight in his left hand, held next to the barrel of his gun. Ronnie did not see anything other than one small spider scurrying away. He took several steps towards the hay bales and Mike's gun. Every step closer to the dark corner of the barn scared Ronnie more and more and he was not sure how he had the courage to keep walking. But he knew he wanted to get his Brother's BB gun. It was important, in that quiet unsaid brother way.

  After a couple more steps, Ronnie was close enough to reach out and grab the gun. As he reached for the gun, there was a creaking sound on the other side of the hay wall, near the front door. He instantly thought Pops was about to open the door and bust him for being in the barn. He jerked and the barrel of his gun hit Mikes gun and it fell into the pile of hay on the ground. Ronnie realized the creak was just the old barn settling and setting his BB gun over his shoulder, reached down for the gun.

  As his fingers closed around the stock of Mikes gun, he felt the furry brush of several spiders. Swallowing a scream, Ronnie snatched the gun up and over his head. It clattered to the floor of the barn behind him and slid to a stop near the loading entrance. He still had the flashlight in his left hand, and his gun slung over his shoulder.

  Ronnie's heart was pounding in his chest and as he looked down into the hay he saw many spiders, crawling out of the hay towards him. He remembered he had taped his legs so he decided to enact some Brotherly justice and stomped at the nearest two spiders. They were smashed with a satisfying squish and there were more targets. Ronnie kept stomping, but still more spiders were pouring out of the hay and corner of the barn.

  Ronnie was stomping spiders as quickly as he could but he wondered how many there were and was about to decide he had stomped enough and get out of there when he happened to flash the beam of light into the far corner of the barn. There was a large hole, about three feet wide on the floor of the barn. It was surrounded by a mound of dirt, as if something had burrowed into the ground. Ronnie noticed the spiders were no longer piling out of the hay and he took a second to aim his flashlight at the hole.

  He could see small spiders scurrying into the hole but what was coming out of the hole raised every hair on the back of his neck. First the flashlight reflected two large circles of light, both about two inches wide, there were other spots reflected back and somewhere in Ronnie's mind the thought ' Spiders have eight eyes' ran around before being replaced by the thought 'spider eyes ain't two inches wide, dork head!'.

  Ronnie didn't really spend too much time with either of those thoughts because he was completely engrossed with what was coming out of that hole. After seeing the eyes, Ronnie noticed two furry spider legs, somehow almost a foot long, groping out of the hole. Soon, other legs appeared and the spider's body, a foot long and nine inches across, slowly crawled out of the hole and moved onto the hay piled on the floor.

  Ronnie did the only thing a young American boy would do in that situation: he shot it in the eye.

  Well, Ronnie shot the spider, he didn't stick around to see exactly where he hit it. As he ran for his life, he somehow managed to scoop up his brother's BB gun and he tore across the ground towards his house.

  He realized he couldn't be seen coming from the barn's direction but luckily Pop's truck wasn't in the drive way and Mom was nowhere to be seen. She was probably still sitting with Mike. Ronnie leaned their guns against the wall in the car port and walked around the house to the front porch, trying to figure out what to do.

  He instinctively knew telling his Mom would not work. He thought he could tell Pops, and although Pops would probably take care of the problem, Pops would also take care of him, as he had not only disobeyed his Father but also lied to him. And he was not sure he wanted to wait for Pops, no telling where he went or when he would be back.

  Ronnie sat for a moment, and then got up and headed inside, sure of what he needed to do.

  Chapter Seven

  Ronnie stepped inside his home. Noone was in the living room so he walked to Mike's doorway. Looking in, he saw Mike asleep in his bed and his Mother napping in the easy chair next to his bed. She had a Woman's Day magazine laying across her chest. Ronnie realized how old his Mother looked, the stress was showing and he had no desire to let her know where he had been or what he planned to do. Stepping silently away, Ronnie headed to his parent's bedroom.

  Edging into their room, Ronnie slowly stepped over to his Pops dresser. Ronnie knew his Dad smoked, but he also knew he only smoked when he was drinking and usually he wasn't drinking this early in the morning, but as upset as Pops had been, Ronnie wasn't too sure. Being nine, Ronnie was roughly eye level to the top of the dresser. Ronnie stood on his toes and looked on the dresser top. He didn't see Pops smokes, or the lighter that he was after. Completely deflated, Ronnie ran his hand on the back edge of the dresser and his fingertips brushed the cellophane wrapped smokes, and he felt the bic lighter on top of the half empty pack. Choking back a yell, he grabbed the lighter and stuck it into his front pocket.

  Leaving the room and headed for the front door, his heart dropped into his feet when he heard 'Ronnie, is that you? What are you doing?'. His Mom had woken up and heard him as he walked by Mikes door.

  'Ummm, I was going to the bathroom.' Mike said, hoping he could leave without having to see his Mother face to face. Ronnie wasn't sure he could hide his plan if he had to talk to her directly.

  'Oh, well, you didn't flush'

  'I'll go do it now. Sorry, Mom'. He went and flushed the toilet, his mind racing with thoughts of how to get his Mother to let him out of the house. He had seen the look in her eyes when he spoke to her earlier and he knew his Mother. She was a Momma Hen and with one son hurt, she may decide both sons needed to be in her sight. He walked into the living room and looked into Mike's room. Thankfully, he noticed his Mother was dozing again. He quickly and very qietly slipped out the front door.

  He again went to the carport area and searched the shelves until he found the small can. It was orange with blue lettering. Sure lite lighter fluid. And to Ronnies relief, it was completely full. This plan was starting to look like it
would work.

  Armed with the can and Pop's lighter, Ronnie headed to the barn.

  Chapter Eight

  Creeping to the back entrance of the barn, Ronnie realized he was too scared to step into the barn again. The spider he had seen was beyond anything he could imagine. Ronnie stood at the barn entrance for a minute, lighter fluid can in one hand, Pops Bic in the other. Finally, with every bit of courage the nine year old could muster, he took the can and pointed it into the barn and squeezed. The fluid arced across the barn and hit the bales of hay. He moved his arm from left to right and sprayed as much of the hay as he could. After a few seconds, Ronnie stopped. He was not sure that would be enough to get the whole barn to go up in flames. He knew the barn was a hundred years old, and the hay was musty and dried out, and he really didn't want to step foot in the barn. But he knew he had to burn the barn completely to the ground to hope to get all the spiders.

  He had to spray the area around the hole. The hole where that huge spider crawled out. The hole where only God knew how many other gigantic spiders were crawling around.

  He had to go back into the barn.

  Every hair on his neck was standing straight up and shivers were running up and down his spine but there was no other choice. He had to go back into the barn.

  Ronnie guessed he had half of the lighter fluid left. That would be enough to burn it to the ground.

  Ronnie stepped into the barn. He took two steps into the barn and could see a short distance into the area walled in by the hay bales. He took the can and squeezed lighter fluid into the dark corner of the barn. He didn't see any spiders so he took a step closer. With the arc of lighter fluid, he was sure he was able to get some in the hole where the spiders were burrowed.

  Ronnie heard a rustling near his feet and looked down to see hundreds of spiders crawling in the loose hay. Screaming, he turned to run, just as the lighter fluid ran out. Seeing his brothers shirt on the ground to his left, he reached down and scooped it up and ran to the open ing to escape. He smelled lighter fluid on Mike's shirt and suddenly realized he held the final piece of his plan.