The room was empty. Or so it seemed to be. Anybody entering the room would see no tables, no chairs or furniture of any kind. There were no coat racks, no desks, no shelves or pictures on the wall. The room did in fact appear to be empty.

Mrs. Moreno, the short, squat, cleaning woman, whose responsibility it was to clean this empty room, knew better. This seemingly empty room had a presence. No, it is not, as some may have guessed, a ghostly or spirited presence. It was a presence that had become, over the last several months, Mrs. Moreno's nemesis.

The empty room was a very tall room, taller than most any room you would walk into. And way up at the top of the corner that was farthest from the door that opened into this room, right next to the very high ceiling, was a spider web. Living on this web was a very ugly black spider with red strips down its bulbous body.

'Arana fea' is what Mrs. Moreno called the spider. It means 'ugly spider'. Mrs. Moreno had been trying to rid the room of the ugly spider for some time, but she could not reach the spider web as the room was too tall. She tried with a stick, with an extension on her vacuum cleaner and a few other of her professional cleaning tricks...nothing worked.

To make matters worse, the spider taunted Mrs. Moreno. Yes, I know, you're thinking "spiders can't taunt people, they're just spiders". But it's true. The spider would drop down on a web to just within Mrs. Moreno's reach and then, when she reached for him(It can only be assumed that the spider is a him as there are no eggs on the web), the spider would crawl quickly back up out of her reach. "Someday, Arana fea, I will get you," Mrs. Moreno would say to the spider while shaking her fist. "I will find a way, and I will get you."

Now, you are probably asking yourself, "why not get a ladder or get someone else to help?" Well, one must see Mrs. Moreno to understand that a ladder was just not an option and, of course, as this was her lively hood, she was much too proud to ask for help. So this went on for months.

This particular empty room did not always remain that way. It was used for many things. It was used for parties, all the kinds of parties that you could imagine. The empty room was used for dances and receptions. Once, the spider actually witnessed an awards ceremony. That's right, the spider witnessed. He very much enjoyed the activities that went on in this empty room when it was not so empty.

When the door to the empty room opened and men started bringing in tables and chairs or podiums or a multitude of other paraphernalia, the spider would run around on his web like a puppy getting his favorite treat. The light would shine in from outside and he could smell the fresh air with all the scents it would carry in. Oooh and when they brought in the machines for making the music, well, the spider did not know what music was, but he liked the way it made him move. And the food...it smelled so good and when they all left after the event was over, if he hurried before Mrs. Moreno arrived, the spider could scoot down and pick up some of the scraps.

Since empty room was used quite often, the big black and red spider had lots of entertainment. This was a good thing as the spider lived alone. He didn't even know where to find another spider like himself. He wasn't even sure how he wound up here in this big empty room. The spider did enjoy his life though...lots of quiet time, with periods of good company. And of course there was Mrs. Moreno. He enjoyed playing with her the most. He loved it when she would try to reach him with some new tool. She would hop around and bluster at him. He would drop down to tease her, which, naturally, only made her angrier. If spiders could laugh or smile, and who knows, maybe they can, then this big black and red spider probably was doing so during those encounters with Mrs. Moreno.

One day Mrs. Moreno came in with a new tool. The spider looked down at her and saw that it was a very small tool. He dropped way down to where she could almost reach him with the small tool. The spider went down, then up, then down, then up, then down. It had done this routine many times in his taunting of Mrs. Moreno. Mrs. Moreno pointed the small tool at the spider and said, "take that Arana fea". Water shot out of the end of the small tool and splashed the big black and red spider right in the face. He fell off of his string and to the floor.

The spider bounced a few times and finally came to rest on his back. He quickly rolled over and gained his footing, and with a spider, of course, that is very good footing. He spun right and then left trying to locate Mrs. Moreno as he suspected she would be coming for him. He looked up and there was Mrs. Moreno's face leering down at him. Her teeth were clenched with her lips peeled back in a twisted and evil grimace. "Now I got you Arana fea". She picked her foot way up in the air, or so to a spider on the ground it seemed so, and then brought it down right at the spider. It only took a split second for the spider to realize her intent.

The spider turned and ran across the floor of the empty room as fast as his eight little legs could carry his bulbous little body. As with humans, and perhaps most other species as well, fear is a great motivator. The big black and red spider, feeling extremely little at this particular moment, moved faster than he ever had before. STOMP! The foot fell right behind the spider. He was running for the wall. He had to get back to his web. A shadow was crossing above him. Instinctively, he turned to the left. STOMP! The foot came down right where he would have been had he not turned.

The spider's change of direction had thrown Mrs. Moreno off balance. "Oofff," she gasped as she hit the wall. "Why you little..." Mrs. Moreno screeched as she tumbled to the floor. The spider was running away from Mrs. Moreno, but now he was heading out into the center of the room. He needed a wall to climb. Setting his sights on the wall way over on the other side of the room, the spider had his little legs moving in a blur. Looking back at Mrs. Moreno, the spider could see she was almost back to her feet, but he was sure he could reach the wall and be up out of her reach before she could get him.

SPLASH! A stream of water landed in front of the spider. He swerved to go around. SPLASH! Another one landed right next to him rolling him sideways. He could hear Mrs. Moreno's footsteps drawing near. The spider started again. SPLASH! Direct hit! The spider rolled in a pool of water. He could barely move his legs. Looking up again he saw the bottom of Mrs. Moreno's shoe fast approaching. This time he moved towards Mrs. Moreno and when her shoe landed, he was at her heel.

The spider grabbed at the back of Mrs. Moreno's shoe and hung on. Mrs. Moreno lifted her foot expecting to see a squashed spider. There was nothing there. She looked at the bottom of her shoe...nothing. She surveyed the immediate area to see if the spider was running for any of the walls...nothing.

The room was empty. There was no place to hide. Mrs. Moreno stood dumbfounded. "Where did you go Arana fea?" She asked, not really expecting an answer. But the answer she got was not at all a pleasing one. The answer she got was the feeling of eight little legs crawling up the back of her leg and under her skirt. The sound that came out of Mrs. Moreno at that moment...well, it is really quite beyond description. Imagine a big ugly black and red spider running up the back of your bare leg under your clothing and I'm sure you can imagine the sound she made that day. It was certainly nothing the spider had ever heard before. The sound startled the spider and he let go and fell again to the floor.

For the second time that day, the spider bounced and wound up on his back. He recovered quickly though and started looking for Mrs. Moreno's shoe to come back at him again. He spun right. He spun left. He looked up. Mrs. Moreno was nowhere to be found. The big black and red spider wasted no time in running for a wall and crawling to the safety of its web, high in the farthest corner from the door, next to the ceiling.

The next day, there was a school dance held in the empty room. The spider watched from his lofty perch. It helped to cheer him up. Yesterday had been a bad day. Mrs. Moreno had almost gotten him with her new little tool. He shivered when he thought about it. She would be here tomorrow to clean after this dance. Usually the spider looked forward to Mrs. Moreno's visits. He liked playing with her. Suddenly, it did not sound to him like very much fun. Looking down, the spider could see lots of places to hide, but tomorrow the room would be empty and there would be no place to hide. The spider worried that the small tool could spray water all the way up to his web.

The spider worried all night. In the morning, the men came and took away all the chairs and tables. They took away the music machines and the extra lights and the glittering balls. They took everything and then the room was empty...except, of course, for a big black and red spider. And the mess the teenagers had made the day before. There were popped balloons, spilled food, loose decoration and a host of other garbage.

The spider knew what all that garbage meant...Mrs. Moreno would be coming in to clean. The spider had already decided to stay on his web when Mrs. Moreno was in the room. No teasing or taunting. He would stay out of sight and maybe she would forget about him...he was only a spider after all.

The door opened and in walked a string bean of an old man. He was hunched over and shuffling along like every step would be his last. He was wearing green coveralls and a matching green hat. A broom was dragging behind him as he clasped it in his right hand. He definitely was not Mrs. Moreno. The spider wondered if the old man was there to help Mrs. Moreno. What if he was a spider hunting expert? The spider slouched down to hide. It was really quite an amusing sight as there was really no place to hide at all.

The old man started sweeping the floor. The spider watched the old man and the door too, still expecting Mrs. Moreno to come bursting through with water shooting all the way up to his web. The old man swept and picked up and cleaned. The spider didn't think the old man did nearly as good a job of cleaning as Mrs. Moreno did. At one point, the old man looked up at the ceiling and spotted the big black and red spider. He stared at the spider for a while, shook his head and went back to sweeping. The spider knew he would miss Mrs. Moreno and his playing with her, but the old man didn't seem to care that the spider was there. The spider decided he could get used to the old man.

This went on for some time, that is, the old man as the new cleaning person. If the spider had any real sense of time, he would have guessed that the old man had been cleaning the empty room for about a month. The spider was becoming quite comfortable with the old man. He still had his parties to watch, but deep down he did miss Mrs. Moreno. He missed the playing...he did not miss the small tool that sprayed water.

One day the door opened and then closed again. The spider had his eyes closed...resting them probably. "Arana fea" he heard. Opening his eyes and looking down, the spider saw Mrs. Moreno staring back at him. She was carrying a package. It looked like something under a piece of cloth. "I have something for you Arana fea" Mrs. Moreno chuckled, setting the package on the floor.

Mrs. Moreno lifted the cloth and underneath was a cage with a blackbird inside. The spider had never seen one of these before, but terror suddenly manifested inside him. He knew, he didn't know how he knew, but he knew...this was trouble. Mrs. Moreno opened the door to the bird cage and stepped back. The blackbird inspected the open door and then hopped out. The blackbird took a few steps and then extended its wings and lifted off. Mrs. Moreno picked up the cage and left the room. She left the door to the empty room open. The blackbird had red marks on its wings. It was not by coincidence that Mrs. Moreno had chosen a red wing blackbird.

When the spider saw the blackbird soar into the air, real panic set in. He ran in circles on his web, and then he went totally still. He didn't know what to do. The bird circled the room. The room was a big room as well as a tall room. The blackbird was coming around past the spider web and as it passed, its head turned and the spider and the blackbird made eye contact...as much as a spider and a blackbird can make eye contact anyway. The bird swerved, cutting its circle short and shot towards the spider and its web. The spider started to drop on a string of web. The bird swerved to intercept the spider.

As the blackbird approached, the spider stopped its descent and ran back up the string. The bird missed, going to low and rammed into the wall. The bird recovered before hitting the floor. It spun around and again streaked toward its intended prey. The spider had regained its web and this time as the bird approached, dropped out of its reach. The bird crashed into the corner, destroying the spider's web. The spider fell all the way to the floor...where it bounced several times.

The spider rolled over and the blackbird was there. The blackbird ate the spider. The blackbird flew out the door. The room was empty.