My new companion

I first made acquaintance with my new companion before Tony left. It was in the early hours of one morning when I was stumbling around the bed to find my socks and I suddenly felt this tingling across my foot. And there he was, small (about the size of a 10p coin), black and 8-legged. Nothing more than a very quiet “oohh” left my lips and I have to admit that the sensation itself was actually quite pleasant. I didn’t bother chasing him as he went straight under the bed or spent even a minute since worrying when or where I might encounter him again.

Around midday I decide to have a bath (just to further indulge in my laziness) and when I go to put my clothes on afterwards he jumps out of them onto the floor. I’m a bit more concerned now. I’m happy for him to roam the house but I don’t want the two of us to get too intimate or him being squashed by accident. So I try to pick him up with a piece of paper but he won’t have none of it and just runs off into the bathroom. A bit later I find him there sitting on a towel. He obviously really likes fabrics.

I remember that I wasn’t always that easy-going around spiders but last year in August I decided to face my fears and handled a tarantula called Octavia. Since then, spiders and I seem to have a special relationship with each other. Just recently I supposedly came across almost hysterical when I tried to save a spider from being trampled to death by panicked women at a party.

Maybe this spider is returning the favour (as a representative of the spider community) by keeping me company while Tony is away. I might call him Brian. That’s Tony’s middle name.