by Nora Penn
“But Daddy,” Carol said with a worried tone. “Now we have a new problem…”
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“How are we going to get home now that our spider is dead?”
“That’s a good question. I’ll have to think about that for a minute…”
What occurred next was the third miracle of that day. The first miracle was that the bite of the blue spider hadn’t killed Carol. The second was Carol killing the spider before it could eat her father. And the third was at first merely auditory.
From far off both Carol and James heard what might rightly be called the happiest sound imaginable for that very moment. It was a sound as proportionately wonderful as the spider’s scream had been awful. And although it was faint at first, and somewhat hard to identify, it soon made itself perfectly clear.
It was the sound of an approaching helicopter.
Chapter 35
Hannah was having a dream. Although she didn’t realize it, it was inspired by the book of nursery rhymes she had been reading aloud to her baby when she fell asleep. The world she found herself in was filled with medieval castles, dragon-filled moats, and enchanted forests. And in the dream she herself was dressed like a maiden from the days of old. She wore a long frilly dress and was sitting on a tuffet, or a fluffy satin pillow, under a flowering tree. In her dream she was eating a bowl full of curds and whey. Curiously, they tasted like Sonja’s cherry pie, which made her smile, in both her dream and in real life. Anyone who would have seen her just then, with her baby Ben sleeping pressed against her chest, would have been touched by viewing such a tender scene.
But in her dream all was not well. Halfway through her bowl of curds and whey, the sky started growing dark. Black clouds swept in and blocked out the sun. The world was suddenly a dark gray.
Hannah jumped up from the tuffet in alarm, letting the bowl of half-eaten curds roll off into the grass. She was alarmed not only by the sudden change in weather, but by the awful sound she heard. It was a bubbling, gurgling sound, like the sound of boiling pretzels.
She looked off in the distance and saw a truly horrible sight. A wave of giant spiders was pouring over the horizon. They were moving incredibly fast and they were looking straight at her.
Hannah began to run in the opposite direction. Behind her she could hear the growing sound of charging spiders. She knew that the horde was gaining on her but she didn’t want to turn around, lest she be paralyzed by the awful sight. Instead she ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Her frilly dress flapped behind her as she ran. Her chest, in both the dream and in real life, rose up and down from the sheer effort of breathing.
Just when it seemed that the spiders would catch up with her, and drag her screaming into their chomping mouths, she saw a tower rise from the landscape ahead of her. The tower was the kind you see in illustrations for fairy tales, except that it looked curiously like the lighthouse that Hannah was currently trapped in. At any rate, in the dream Hannah ran for the fairy tale tower as if her life depended on it.
She made it to the door at the base of the tower, opened it, ran inside, and shut the door behind her. The second it was closed the spiders reached the tower and began to claw at the portal. Hannah watched in horror as long, hairy spider legs reached through the edges around the wooden door and scratched to get the door open.
Hannah turned and ran once again. She ran up a flight of spiral steps that led to a second floor. As she made it to the second floor she heard the first floor door burst open beneath her. She looked down and saw that the horde of giant spiders had entered the tower. As they swarmed inside they looked up at her with hate-filled eyes.
“You cannot escape us!” the spiders hissed in unison.
In her dream, Hannah ran up another flight of steps to the third floor of the tower, and then the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth floor. Each time she made it to a new floor, the spiders would burst through the door beneath her. She always stayed one step ahead of them, but she was terrified, because she knew that the tower wasn’t infinite and at some point she would come to the final room. What would she do then?
She finally made it to the seventh floor of the tower. She ran through the door and shut it tightly behind her. As soon as the door was closed she could hear the spiders collide with the opposite side. She could hear their hairy legs scratching at the wood. But by the grace of god the door held them back. She put her hand to her chest to quiet her ragged breathing. She was safe, at least for the moment.
She looked around the room she was in. It was obviously the top of the tower. There were no steps leading upward, just a solid ceiling. The room was empty except for a window that was cut into the wall. She went to the window and looked out.
The landscape was still gray, but lo and behold there was a light growing on the horizon. It was the return of the sun. Hannah had never seen such a glorious sight. The pink rays came shining over the landscape and lit up the hills and valleys. As if that sight wasn’t uplifting enough, a figure suddenly appeared on the horizon. It was a knight on horseback. Hannah somehow knew that the knight was coming to save her.
As her heart beat wildly, she watched the knight on horseback gallop over the grass. He was heading straight for the tower. At his side was a mighty sword, which he would use to cut down the spiders in his path. As Hannah watched, panting, the knight galloped up to the base of the tower. Before his horse had even come to a complete stop he jumped off its back and ran to the tower. Without pausing he began to climb. He didn’t even need a grappling hook. He just climbed straight up by holding onto the edges of bricks.
With amazing strength and rapidity, the knight in shining armor climbed up all seven floors of the tower and finally made it to Hannah’s window. Hannah had never been so grateful in all her life. In her dreaming mind she imagined that the knight was James and that he would take her off to some fairy tale kingdom where they could raise their children, who were of course dream versions of Ben and Carol.
Hannah stepped back a pace as the knight reached the window. He put one gloved hand on the ledge and put his head inside the room. His face was hidden behind the closed visor of his helmet. As Hannah watched with rapt attention, the knight reached up with his other gloved hand and flipped back the visor so he could see her better.
Instead of the handsome face that she expected, the face inside the knight’s helmet belonged to the spider from the illustration to Little Miss Muffet. It had eyebrows so hairy they made Groucho Marx look like a schoolgirl, a mouth full of bristling fangs, a prickly mustache, a big red nose, and a pair of wild eyes that looked her up and down with lecherous intent.
“You cannot escape us…” the spider knight said in a voice that sounded like a thousand hisses combined.
Hannah screamed. She screamed so loud that she woke herself up from her awful dream.
Suddenly realizing that she had been having a nightmare, she looked down at her baby. Ben, despite her loud scream, was still fast asleep. She stared at his adorable face, with its closed eyes and its softly breathing mouth.
Still breathing heavily, she looked around the third floor room. The heavy chest was still in the corner, covering the trapdoor. The porthole window was still sealed with the tightly screwed lid. The trapdoor in the ceiling was still intact. And most importantly, no spiders had gotten into the room.
“It was just a dream,” she whispered to herself. Then she looked back down at her sleeping baby. “Do you hear that, Ben? It was just a dream.”
The baby’s mouth opened and a torrent of black spiders poured out of its body.
Hannah’s second scream woke her up from her second dream.
Panting, she looked down at her baby. Ben was awake and softly mewing to himself. To all appearances he was happy and healthy.
Hannah’s heartbeat was going a hundred miles an hour. The dream within a dream had unnerved her to the core. She stood up with her baby still pressed to her chest and began pacing the room. As she walked ba
ck and forth, mulling over both her strange dreams and the strange predicament she found herself in, an unexpected sound came to her ears.
It wasn’t the sound of spiders. It wasn’t the sound of boiling pretzels.
It was the sound of an approaching helicopter.
Hannah turned her eyes towards the ceiling. Could it be?
Yes, it was plainly the sound of whirring helicopter blades. And it was getting closer.
Her heart sped up again, but this time it wasn’t out of fear. It was out of hope.
With baby Ben pressed against her chest she tentatively put a foot on the ladder leading to the top of the lighthouse and began climbing. At the top of the ladder she listened once more. She could tell that the helicopter had flown much closer. It was perhaps even right over the lighthouse.
She put her hand on the trapdoor and pushed. The light of a new morning flooded through the opening. And the smell of fresh morning air flooded her lungs. She pushed the trapdoor all the way open and climbed up the rest of the ladder. Holding her baby, she clambered up into the lighthouse’s upper floor.
Through the glass panels that surrounded her on all sides she could see that the yard was still filled with spiders. They were still waiting for her. But they would never get their chance to eat her or her baby, because they were being rescued.
The helicopter hovered directly overhead. Shielding her eyes, Hannah could see that it was an Army helicopter, which meant that the military was up and running once again, which meant that the nation was slowly but surely getting back on its feet. And adding icing to the cake was the fact that a chain link ladder had been unrolled from the helicopter’s side door. And standing on the bottom rung of the ladder was none other than her husband James.
Hannah cranked open of the glass panel windows. “Thank god you’re here!” she shouted into the wind.
The helicopter hovered closer, so that James and the chain link ladder were right next to window.
“Howdy Darling!” James said with a hearty shout.
Getting out of the tower and onto the helicopter was tricky business, especially for a woman who had just given birth recently, but she managed to do it just fine. First, the baby had to be handed up the ladder to military personnel. And then Hannah had to step from the top of the lighthouse into her husband’s grasping arms. They both climbed back up the ladder and into the helicopter. Carol was waiting inside the compartment.
“Mommy!” she screamed and threw her arms around Hannah’s neck. Hannah savored her daughter’s warm embrace and let tears of joy run down her cheeks.
As soon as the helicopter’s side door was shut, it lifted back into the air and began flying over the landscape.
Hannah and James and Carol all exchanged a deep hug in front of the soldiers who were on hand. Everyone present, from Hannah and James, to the military men, all had tears in their eyes. Even baby Ben was crying, not from hunger or fear but from happiness. Years later he would hear the story of how his father had saved them. The memory would stay locked in his infant memories, a bit too deep to easily recall, but for the moment, even he was rejoicing.
“Hannah,” James said finally. “I want you to meet someone special…”
Hannah looked up from her husband’s embrace.
“This is Dylan…” James said. “Bill and Sonja’s grandson…”
A young man in his twenties, with freckles and a fresh-faced grin, gave her his hand to shake. Hannah recognized him from the photographs in Bill and Sonja’s family room.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Dresden…” Dylan shouted over the noise of the helicopter’s whirring blades.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too!”
“You’ll never believe what kind of an adventure we’ve had!” James shouted.
“And you’ll never believe what Ben and I have been through!” Hannah shouted back.
They each filled in the other on what had happened while they were apart. James explained how he and Carol had been kidnapped by Bigsby and how Carol had been bitten by the blue spider but hadn’t had any negative effects. He added that there was a hope – however slim – that the blue spider might provide a cure for Carol’s brain tumor. He pointed to a cat box in the helicopter with a blue spider inside and added that they had kept the little creature for further testing. Hannah was overjoyed to hear this, of course, and prayed to God that her daughter was cured.
Hannah then filled James and Carol in on everything that had happened since they left. In addition to talking about her own trials and travails, she had to break the bad news to them about how Bill had passed away. She turned to Dylan who was also listening and told her how sorry she was about his loss, adding that his grandfather Bill was one of the most heroic men she’d ever met.
In turn, Dylan had to explain how he and his fellow soldiers had found Sonja dead in her car. Hannah was truly sad to hear this. The three adults fell silent for a moment as they considered the family and friends they had lost.
This solemn moment was finally broken by the sound of Ben’s happy laughter. It was more than the laugh of a child. It was a sign from the universe that life would go on.
Chapter 36
The helicopter detail flew the reunited family to Massachusetts General Hospital, landing on the helicopter pad on the roof.
“Thank you, Dylan,” James said as he stood on the landing pad and shook the young man’s hand. “Your grandparents would be proud of you.”
“I appreciate that, Mr. Dresden,” Dylan said and bowed his head slightly. “I’m going to honor their spirit and do whatever I can to fight this menace.”
Both Carol and Hannah gave Dylan a hug and then he was off, flying to his next mission.
Once the family was inside the hospital, Carol was whisked away to be given a new MRI. The blue spider with the black cross on its back was taken off to a lab to be tested.
James had a sort of celebrity status in the hospital due to when he and Bill had saved Nurse Doris from the thugs who kept her hostage in the warehouse. There was also the fact that he and Nurse Doris had brought back so many medical supplies, which was much appreciated by the staff and patients alike. James inquired about the warehouse situation and was informed that return trips had been made there. All the drug addicts there were now being treated in the hospital’s rehabilitation center. Some could be expected to slip back into their lives of wasteful addiction. But most of them seemed to be improving and it was hoped that they would one day soon lead meaningful, productive lives.
After Carol returned from her MRI, the four of them – James, Hannah, Carol, and Ben – all sat in the waiting area and talked among themselves. The television in the room was dormant of course, but a URH radio had been turned on and filled the air with its low volume static.
A little while later a nurse came into the waiting room. Instead of calling one of the parents over so she could speak with them privately, as they might have done if the news was negative, she walked up to the whole group and declared aloud that Carol’s MRI had come back all clear.
“Here…look…” she said, pointing at the MRI scans. “All the dark spots are gone.”
Both James and Hannah felt tears come to their eyes. And Carol, who was just enough to grasp what was going on, also cried happily. As for Ben, he continued to mew contentedly, without a care in the world.
“It appears that your daughter is completely cured.” the nurse said, amazed.
“We owe it all to the blue spider…” James commented. “That Bigsby sure was a heartless coward, but his crazy vision was correct. The blue spider’s bite was the cure.”
“We’re still doing tests on the blue spider…” the nurse added. “And it will be a while before we know for sure that its bite is curative, but it certainly appears that way.”
“We’re just grateful our daughter is okay…” Hannah said, wiping tears of joy from her eyes.
“Well, I’ll leave you all alone for a moment. I’m sure you want to share in
your joy.”
Both James and Hannah thanked her. The nurse made a little bow and walked off.
As the family shared another group hug, the static on the URH radio increased. Presently the voice of President Balthazar emerged from the crackling static. This time it was the voice of the real President Balthazar, and not Bigsby’s crafty imitation. To James, who hadn’t even voted for Balthazar, the sound of the president’s voice was a sweet as the song of an angel.
“Dear Citizens of the United States. This is President Atticus Balthazar. I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard my voice, but the US Government is only now getting back on its feet. The truth is that we’ve got a lot of work to do before law and order is fully restored. But I am transmitting this address live to let everyone know that the spider invasion is being repelled. Every day the US military is retaking more land. And every day greater numbers of the spider menace are being vanquished. Within a few short weeks we hope to have the entire country back under our control.”
From all over the hospital the sound of cheers and clapping could be heard. All of the patients and hospital staff were listening intently, hanging on every one of President Balthazar’s words.
“Starting today I will address the nation every day at noon, to keep all of the country’s citizens up to date on our progress. In the meantime, I ask that each of you do your part to maintain civility. We must all help each other to be the best that we can be. After all, it is up to each one of us to take up the responsibility of being not just good Americans, but good human beings. And with that I will sign off. Until tomorrow, this has been President Atticus Balthazar. God bless each and every one you…”
In the background the national anthem started to play.
“…and God Bless America.”
THE END