frantically towards the back of the boat.
The boat had been tied at the dock for over a week, since anyone was last
at the cabin, and there wasn’t anything that wolf spiders loved more than
the dock and the water. That included the boat too. They weren’t choosy. It
made a particularly lovely habitat and over the years, June had heard some
real horror stories from Summer. One time, they were there by themselves
and decided to take a swim. They’d run straight off the dock, leaping
without looking.
When they’d surfaced, the whole dock was crawling with huge wolf
spiders. It was a good thing they were able to swim around through the
weeds and come up onto the beach. They’d only had four or five leaches
stuck to them for their effort, which was still better than having a wolf
spider leap onto them. The things loved to leap.
“Oh shit!” June panicked, grabbing Summer’s arm hard. The boat jerked
as Summer threw back the throttle and ground them to a dead stop. She
killed the motor so they could actually hear each other.
“What’s wrong?” Her eyes flew from June’s face down to where her
hand clutched her arm in a death grip.
“Wolf spiders. Three. Back. Huge.” June couldn’t make sentences. She
panted out the words.
She hated spiders, but it was more of the kind of hatred that meant as
long as they didn’t climb on her or look at her or come anywhere near her,
they would all be fine. If they did, it was game over. She couldn’t be
responsible for the panic that ensued, the wild slapping, and the high
probability of spider carnage, which was a horrific thing to think about in
and of itself.
Apparently, Arabella felt the same way. She let out a shriek and climbed
a little higher onto her seat. She was perched like a crazed bird, her long
legs up underneath her, her arms wrapped around her like wings.
“If one of those gets on me, I’m going to die,” she squealed. She curled