"Sid, we were drunk and stoned and we had sex a lot, with a lot of different people."
"So, we got laid a lot, we were still idealistic. I want to get that across in the book."
He'd mentioned it a few other times, too. She wondered if he'd decided to go ahead and write it. It would be very cool if he ended up sitting on a bestseller. It was a nice fantasy, anyway. He'd never written fiction before, but he was an elegant, well-spoken man, and she had no doubt that Sid had it in him to write a book.
Pepe yipped from the side of the house. He was slowly making his way to the back.
She ripped open a bag of Lays potato chips and put a handful on each paper plate. She put the plates on a round tray of brown plastic, along with a cold can of Diet Shasta grape soda for Sid, and a can of Diet Dr. Pepper for her, and a paper towel for each of them.
Holding the tray with both hands, Allie went down the short hall through the laundry room, where a small washer and dryer hunkered side by side, to the back door. She balanced the tray as she reached out and opened the door. It swung out as she stepped onto the small wooden landing atop four wooden steps that led down to the concrete.
Somehow she managed to hang onto the tray without spilling anything in spite of what she saw when she stepped out the door. Later, she would wonder how she'd done that.
Sid was stretched out on his back on the concrete. The thing that straddled him with its many legs had its face buried in Sid's abdomen. It made wet bubbling sounds as it slurped and sucked.
The panic that rose into her constricted throat filled her lungs, but she did not scream. Instead, she took a step backward into the open door.
Pepe appeared at the corner of the house, yipping his head off. The tiny dog saw the spider and immediately attacked. He ran to the spider and bit one of its front legs, then backed up and yip-yip-yipped.
The spider was on Pepe before the dog had time to cry out.
As it gobbled up the Chihuahua with its three huge black fangs, Allie backed into the trailer and closed the door. Her knees wobbled beneath her as she went back into the kitchen and put the tray on the counter. She hurried into the living room and grabbed the phone on the end table beside Sid's recliner. She dropped it, picked it up, and clutched it tightly in her hand.
Her heart raced as she turned on the phone and punched in nine-one-one.
"Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?" a woman said.
Allie did not hesitate for a moment, did not care how it sounded. "There's a giant spider in my back yard, and it's eating my husband."
"Where are you located?" the woman said.
"Two-twelve Pineway Mobile Home Estates."
"Where is the spider now?"
Allie hurried back to the laundry room and looked out the small window beside the door.
Sid lay on the patio, opened up and partially eaten, like a piece of road kill. She could not see the spider.
"I don't see it anymore," Allie said as she cried, as tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's moved."
She went to the living room and knelt on the couch to look out the window behind it.
"There it is!" she said. "Oh, my God, it's going over to Doretta Claub's house."
"Okay, listen, ma'am, we're sending units over there now, but you need to stay inside, all right? Do not go outside. Call your neighbors and tell them not to go outside. Do you understand?"
"Yes, yes, I'll call Doretta right now."
Thirty-Two.
The spider made its way across Spruce Street, but when it reached Doretta Claub's trailer, it veered right and kept going down the street.
It crawled over the two pink flamingos in Stan and Bonita Lodge's yard and knocked the colorful pinwheels out of the large redwood plant box at the end of Herman Shore's trailer.
It turned left and went down Sycamore Street, where it followed the road for a while before cutting off to the right and going through Paul and Justine Marx's front yard. A dog inside the Marx's trailer barked furiously as the spider went by.
It collapsed a small picket fence that ran along the back of the yard, then went into Tom and Regina Racine's front yard and on to Peach Tree Street. On the other side of Peach Tree stood the tan cinder block wall that went all around the development.
The spider climbed the wall with no effort and left the park.
Thirty-Three.
When Harker arrived at the McCormacks' trailer, the ambulance was there, and a deputy had already gone inside. He got out of his cruiser, shotgun in hand, and approached the two EMTs who stood talking at the rear of the ambulance.
"They don't need us," one said. "They need the coroner." Harker knew his name was Steve, but he didn't know his last name. Harker didn't know the other guy.
He saw a body lying on a concrete patio in the trailer's back yard. The man's clothes were torn up ... and so was the man.
"What's up?" Harker said.
"You need to see this," Steve said. "He was dead before we got here. We knew better than to touch a thing."
"I appreciate that, guys," Harker said. "You see or hear anything?"
They shook their heads and the one Harker didn't know said, "Just the old lady talking about a giant spider." He chuckled nervously.
"Is that right?" Harker said, giving away nothing with his poker face.
The guy nodded and said, "Yeah. A giant spider. You believe that?"
"Well, you guys can go, I guess," Harker said. "We'll get the coroner down here."
"Okay, Sheriff," Steve said as he headed for the driver's door.
Harker turned and started toward the body when the guy he didn't know spoke.
"Wait, Sheriff," he said. "What is it? What did that?" He was trying to smile, but his fear showed in it, and for a moment, he looked as if he were pulling back the corners of his mouth in a grimace.
"We're not sure yet," Harker said. "But stay inside unless absolutely necessary." Then he went over to the body.
The guy got in the ambulance, and Steve drove away.
Harker looked down at the body, but only for a moment. He walked around to the front of the trailer. The door was open and he heard sobbing. He went up the front steps and stood in the doorway. Deputy Cheryl Hainey sat beside an old woman on the couch. The old woman sobbed into the palm of her hand.
"Have you called anyone?" Hainey said. "A relative, maybe? Someone who can come over and be with you?"
The old woman shook her head.
"Would you like me to call someone? Do you have any children in the area?"
She nodded. "Cuh-could you ... call my son?" she said.
"Sure, sure," Hainey said.
"Ma'am, I'm Sheriff Harker. Would you mind if I come in and ask you a few questions?"
She nodded and tried to collect herself. As Harker came inside, she said, "It was a spider, Sheriff. I know how it sounds, I know it sounds crazy, but it was a giant spider, it was a "
"Calm down, Ma'am. I believe you. Did you get a good look at it?"
She nodded again.
"Did you happen to notice if it was missing a fang?"
"I-I saw fangs, but ... " She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, I didn't notice how many it had."
"Did you see which way it went?"
"It went that way," she said pointing to her left. She took a tissue from a box in her lap, dabbed her eyes and cheeks with it.
"What's in that direction in the park?" Harker said.
"Well, you go far enough and you hit the wall."
"The wall," Harker said, mostly to himself. Providing it had kept going in that direction, it might have gone over the wall and left the park already. He hadn't seen it on the way in, or he would've stopped. He needed deputies to check out the park. There was a chance it could still be somewhere within its walls. He took the microphone clipped to the shoulder of his shirt and pressed down the button with his thumb. "Two-oh-six, I need back-up at Pineway Mobile Home Estates, space two-twelve, that's space two-twelve at Pineway Mobile Home Estates. And send the coroner over here, too."
Deputy Hainey said, "I didn't see it, Sheriff. I've been watching for it, like you said, but I didn't see it. She did, though," she said, nodding at the old woman.
"Take her statement after you've called her son," Harker said. He turned to the old woman. "I'm sorry for your loss, ma'am." He turned and left the trailer.
Back-up arrived a three units. Harker sent them through the park and told them to have their shotguns ready.
The coroner arrived a few minutes later.
"Tony, this looks very familiar," Blevins said as he approached Harker. "This is what happened to the people from last night. Exactly, in fact." He stood over the body and nodded as he looked down at it. "Exactly."
Harker told him there was another spider running loose.
Blevin's bushy white eyebrows went up and he said, "You shitting me?"
"I shit you not. The remaining spider has only three fangs. It lost one when it bit a seventy-two Mustang in the trunk."
Blevins went to the back of the hearse, where his young male assistant had pulled out the unpadded metal gurney. He returned with a body bag and opened it beside the body on the ground. He rolled the body into the bag, drew it together, and zipped it up.
They put the old man on the gurney and the assistant wheeled the bagged corpse back to the hearse and shoved it inside.
"To be honest, Tony," Blevins said, "I'm having a little trouble getting my mind around this, you know what I'm saying? I mean ... a giant spider."
"I know exactly what you're saying. We're all having that problem. Wait till you see it. Your mind has to get around it pretty damned quick when you see it."
Blevins laughed a low, humorless chuckle. "You sure there's only one more?"
Harker sighed as a sickening feeling moved through his stomach. "I hope there's only one more." He patted the coroner on the shoulder. "Stay inside, Andy. And keep all of this to yourself for now. I don't want it to get out any sooner than necessary, because as soon as it does, this all turns into a circus."
"I understand."
The deputies returned from their patrol of the park. None of them had seen the spider.
"It moves very fast," Harker said, frustration in his voice. "It could cover a whole lot of ground in no time. We can't even guess where it is." He got in his car and got on the radio. "All units, cover the town. It's the only thing we can do right now."
Dispatch said, "I got the press here asking about giant spiders, and I'm getting lots of sightings."
"Where's the last one?" Harker said.
"39 West Pearl Street. The call just came in. A Mr. Mike O'Ryan."
Harker looked up at the deputies gathered at his open door. "Let's hit it, that's just up the road."
They got in their cars and left the park, going over the twenty-five-miles-per-hour speed limit.
Thirty-Four.
Sandy Chatsworth was home from work with a bad cold. She worked at the Wells Fargo Bank on Center Street in Hope Valley. Her son Zack was outside playing in the front yard, her husband Leo down at the office selling insurance. Sandy lay on the couch with a blanket over her and her favorite pillow under her head, watching a cooking show.
The front door opened and Zack came inside. He was seven years old and beautiful, with his father's blond hair and strong features. It never ceased to amaze Sandy that she felt an almost crippling surge of love every time she looked at him.
"Mom, can I go *cross the street to the park and play on the swings?" he said, standing before the couch, between Sandy and the television.
Her sinuses were congested, and when she spoke, her voice was scratchy. "No, honey, you know you can't go over there unless Daddy or I go with you, and I'm just too sick to go today. I'm sorry, honey."