Summary

Swoon

Oliver watches a spider in a stairwell over weeks. It has just given birth, creating six sacks of thread from which babies emerge. The spider made the nests from her own body, layering the thread. A male spider visits sometimes, but he does not eat from the female’s catch. A cricket gets stuck in the web, the first source of food in a week. The spider moves hastily, wrapping the cricket’s ankles together and then its front legs. She kicked the spider with its back legs, making it swing around, and then killed it with poison. The spider lay against the cricket, feeding on it for hours. The babies come out of the sacks, first just a couple, then many more, and they spread across the floor. Oliver wonders if they tear the fabric with their legs or chew through...