“Really? Why?” I queried, sensing a possible story.
An introspective look clouded her eyes before she murmured, “I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but I believe that his wife and two of his children were bitten by spiders while they were sleeping.”
Envisioning the horrifying scenario of spiders hiding in my bed gave me a royal case of the shivers. Since childhood, I had struggled with my irrational and illogical fear of the eight-legged creatures. My father often expressed amazement that I had no fear of snakes, frogs, lizards, mice or chasing down murderers, but the smallest spider would send me into a screaming panic. Much to Tally’s amusement and my embarrassment, I had to admit that I had not overcome that fear as an adult.
“And shortly after that,” Thena added, “there was a fire
