The Woman Who Hated Spiders: A Short Story

By Harley Ramsey

Terri hates spiders. Ever since she was a child. Now in her mid-twenties, she finds a couple in her apartment. When the landlord refuses to do anything about it, Terri and Derek, her upstairs neighbor, decide to venture down into the basement in an attempt to build a case against their landlord for neglect of duties. In the basement they find a trapdoor that leads to Terri's worst nightmare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387199488

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The Woman Who Hated Spiders: A Short Story

THE WOMAN WHO HATED SPIDERS

Terri wished she still had her laptop.

Naked as the day she was born, she sat at her desk staring at the half-typed page in the carriage of the turquois Olivetti typewriter.  Composing fiction was so much easier on a computer than on a typewriter, especially when you’ve written yourself into a corner.  When that happened all you had to do was highlight the unwanted material and hit DELETE.  Typewriters didn’t have that function.

Terri strained her brain, trying to think of anything she could do that didn't entail her having to rip the page out of the carriage and rewrite the necessary number of pages to get herself back on track.

After six years—three spent at Southeastern Community College, three after graduating—her damned laptop decided to call it quits without giving her a two weeks’ notice.  Now she was forced to use her grandmother’s old manual typewriter until she could save up enough money to buy a new laptop.

Of course the heat in the apartment wasn’t helping her think, either.

Burlington was going through its hottest heat wave since 1922, making her apartment feel like a sauna set on MAX.  She would have try and convince Mazurewicz to fix the air conditioner.

After a while, when no ideas came, Terri pushed her chair back from her desk and went into the kitchen.

The cool air coming out of the open fridge felt good against her hot skin.  She stood there for a moment, letting it