Page 13 of Paroled on Love

She chuckled, "We aren't wardens here. We want to see you succeed."

"That's more than I can say for some." She smiled.

"See you at supper." She winked and left.

Jeremiah was acting a bit strange when she saw him in the barn.

"What's going on?"

"It's a spider."

"A spider." She shrieked.

"Yeah, don't come any closer, he might jump on you." Jeremiah said as he watched the door of the barn swing open. "He seems to move pretty fast, I've chased him from the other side of the barn.

"Where is he?" She shrieked.

"On the door." He stared at the door and raised the shovel.

"Is he big?"

"Yeah, really big. Don't breathe," he told her.

She held her breath and he smacked the door hard.

The big ugly spider lay dead on the ground and she moved closer to look at it.

"Oh my gosh! He's huge!" She screeched.

"Tell me about it. But he's dead now. No problems. He probably isn't dangerous to people, but he could hurt an animal, I'm sure of that." He smiled at her.

"Do you have many of those spiders around here?"

"No," He bent down to examine it. "That's a Brazilian Wandering Spider, I think, at least it looks like the one I saw in science class. They can hurt pretty bad if they bite you."

"What's he doing here, I wonder?" She asked not wanting to get too close in case he wasn't dead.

"They get imported pretty easy as they climb on the vegetable and fruit boxes and are imported into our country. They like bananas." He told her.

"How do you happen to know so much about them?"

"Oh," He smiled at her as he stood up. "I studied them quite extensively in high school. Had a teacher, Mr. Leavenworth that loved to collect specimens. He showed me some and he had one of these. He told me how they got over here."

"They were dead I hope?" She looked at him.

"Yeah, preserved but dead." He smiled. "He can't hurt anything now."

"Well, I've got three more horses to curry." She told him.

"No you don't. I did them. I saw you go in the house and so I decided since I was about through, I'd do them." He told her.

"Thanks, but you didn't have to."

"I know that. It's called helping out, Leah, and who knows I might need help someday."

She smiled shyly at him.

"So you going to the dance with me Saturday?" He asked.

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