By Matthew Aadland
(Note: the narrator is a woman. There was some confusion on that point when I first wrote this on Reddit, so I just wanted to be clear).
Coffee in hand, I walked in to my office to see what the gift would be today.
The lights came on as I entered the room and took off my oversized sunglasses. I looked to my desk. A sparkle caught my eye. A large diamond broach was perched right at the left edge. Not in it’s usual spot, as if the effort of getting it up to the top was all that Charlotte could manage.
I peered closer as I sat down, wondering if perhaps a coworker had left it there. But no, I could see the tiny, glistening stands of silk clinging to it. I sighed. Once, finding these little gifts had been a source of pure joy, but lately, the increasing value had me worried about where they’d come from. Not that I wouldn’t wear it, mind.
I picked up the broach and looked to the web in the corner of my window. “Thank you, Charlotte,” I said, and then clipped the broach to my suit jacket.
The large brown house spider tucked into the corner did not respond, but I knew it was her.
A month ago, I’d spotted her there while I was chatting with a male coworker, Greg. My sudden gasp got his attention and he’d followed my gaze to the spider. “I got this,” he said as he slipped off one of his loafers. We both crept towards the window. As he raised his shoe to strike, I suddenly noticed the little white spots on her thorax. Babies, I realized. As Greg’s shoe swept forward to smash the spider into a gooey mess, I reached out and seized his wrist. “Wait!” I said. “Don’t.
“She’ll just eat the flies and mosquitoes that always make their way in here. Let her be.”
It was the next morning that I found the first gift. A fly, still struggling in the mass of webs that surrounded it. “Gross!” I said as I swept it into the trash with a shudder. It took me a whole week to figure out what was going on. Every morning, I came into my office to find a different bug, alive but cocooned in webbing. I had no inkling of what was happening for that first week.
I only realized what was going on the following Monday, when I found a pencil eraser. A few strands of silk kept it from rolling off my desk as it sat in the same exact spot that I’d found the bugs in. I looked up at the web. “Is this you? Are you… Are you thanking me for saving you?”
Charlotte had no response, of course. She was a spider.
I named her the next day, when I found a tiny stud earrings with those telltale silk threads on it. I normally don’t wear any jewelry or makeup because it makes my husband, Frank angry when I go out like that without him. But that Wednesday, I wore a pair of amethyst stud earrings throughout my work day. That was the first time I thanked Charlotte, as I took them off at the end of the day.
“It was very nice to be able to wear them today, even if I can’t take them home,” I told her.
From them on, it was jewelry, every day. Mostly stud earrings and rings, because Charlotte was not very large or strong. Each one, I wore throughout the day at work, taking it off only when I was getting ready to leave for the night.
Finding these little gifts became the highlights of my life. Between the stresses at work and Frank’s temper, I was only really happy when I got to put on some jewelry in the morning, and whenever someone noticed it and complimented me. It was almost enough to make everything else worthwhile.
Until last night.
That was the night I’d forgotten to take off a thin silver necklace with a tiny heart pendant before I went home. Frank was furious.
He demanded to know who’d given it to me. What was I supposed to tell him? That a little spider I’d saved from being squashed was giving me jewelry as thanks? I tried to make up a lie on the spot, something about an event at work, but I was so scared. Frank saw right through me. In the face of me lying to him… Things went downhill.
I sat there in my office all day and cried. I wasn’t very close with anyone at work, because Frank was so jealous that I was afraid to make friends he didn’t already know. So nobody asked about my bloodshot eyes and constant sniffles. Nor about the bruising on the left side of my face, clumsily covered in foundation that I hadn’t worn in a decade. But I’m sure they noticed.
As I got up to leave that evening, I took the broach off and put it in the drawer with the other trinkets. I glanced up at Charlotte’s spot and frowned.
Charlotte was gone.
I walked over and examined the corner of the window. Her web was there, shimmering in the orange glow of the streetlights outside and bedecked with tiny little husks. There was no sign of life.
I sighed. Of course, that’s how the day would end. “Goodbye, Charlotte. I’ll miss you dearly,” I whispered as I left, closing the door behind me.
Thankfully, Frank had gone out with his friends that night. I had a glass of wine and took a bath, still weeping quietly. I didn’t know what I would do without those little gifts in the morning. There seemed little point to waking up and going into work, knowing that Charlotte would not be there.
I looked at the medicine cabinet. There, in the back, on the top shelf. A whole bottle of sleeping pills. Seven or eight would be enough, I thought. There were 30 in the bottle, untouched since I got them this past June. I could probably eat the whole bottle, drunk as I was off the wine and my own self-pity.
But no. I hadn’t had the guts in June, and I didn’t have the guts, now. Frank was right about me. I have no will of my own.
I went to bed, thankfully alone that night. I woke up the next morning and was halfway through getting ready when I realized Frank hadn’t been in bed when I got out.
It figures. It wasn’t the first time -and wouldn’t be the last- that he’d gotten too drunk to drive home and instead crashed in some cheap motel near the bar. He usually stumbled in while I was getting dressed, glitter on his face and reeking of cheap perfume. The same perfume that Cindy, the bartender at his favorite dive wore.
That morning, however, I made it out the door without seeing Frank.
I got to work, went in to my office and glanced reflexively at the window.
Charlotte was back!
There she was, perched in the middle of her web, eight limbs outstretched as if to offer me a hug. I smiled, relief flooding through me.
I practically pranced over to my desk and say down, checking the spot where my daily gift usually awaited me.
This time, it was different. Always before, the gift had been shiny jewelry. Gems and silver, and I think one platinum hoop earring. This time, it was a ring, but it looked to be a simple band made of wood. It was a dark wood, with a reddish hue.
As I picked it up, a bit of brown flaked off, and I saw gold underneath. Rubbing it with my fingers, I soon figured out what it was. A men’s wedding ring. In fact, it was remarkably like Frank’s. Had Frank left it here? Was he finally leaving me to be with Cindy?
I glanced at the flakes that had once obscured the ring. Was that… Blood? I looked up at the web. What kind of spider was Charlotte? I thought she was a house spider, but looking now, she looked more like a brown recluse. But she was so big! How much venom could a brown recluse that size produce?
At that moment, Greg knocked on my door.
“Sarah? There’s… There’s a deputy here to speak to you.”
I could see the deputy standing behind Greg. He had his hat in his hands and his eyes downturned. I recognized his posture and knew what his first words would be, even as he spoke them.
“Ma’am, I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news…”
I began to laugh. “Charlotte, I love you so much!”