Here are some of the pieces that I have written:
By Kathryn Stockbower
One chilly evening, I was walking down the street, just out for a stroll. Leaves were falling, the wind was blowing and I shivered. It was the 19th of October and getting very cold. I pulled my coat tighter around my waist. As I turned a corner into a dark alleyway, I spotted an old mansion out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and turned around. There, across the street was a shabby, but looming house. Strange, I hadn't noticed it there before, I must have gone down this street 100 times. The house looked as though no one had lived there for years. Being the daredevil that I am, I decided to go for it. I ran across the empty street, across the still lawn and up to the front door.Just as I had guessed, no one was home. I opend the door with a loud creeeak. I stepped in.
What I saw made the hair on my body stand on end. There were cobwebs everywhere and spiders crawling on every inch of the floor. My first instinct was to run, but my body wasn't cooperating with my brain. I stood there completely frozen; watching thousands upon thousands of spider go where they please. I then felt a crawling sensation around my ankle. When I looked down, I noticed a tiny black widow had found my leg and started crawling up it. As it got to my knee, I snapped out of it. A piercing scream escaped my lips. I started swatting at it wildly. I felt a pinch. I have gotten stung by bees, bitten by flies and stabbed by mosquitoes, but never has a spider bitten me. At first my leg tingled, and then it felt fine. Evan so, I was worried. A scary thought flashed through my head. What if the bite was poisonous? Would I die before I even get home? With these new ideas, I felt a sense of urgency. I opened the door, staggered down the steps and across the lawn. Everything was spinning in my head. I felt faint. Then my eyes focused. I realized that I had walked a block without even knowing it and that I only had one more to go. This was when the pain hit. My legs crumpled beneath me, and in less than a second I found myself on the ground. Using all the strength I had in my weak body, I pulled myself up from the ground. The pain had dulled, but it was still there. My house was now in view. This thought brought strength to my shaking legs. I picked up the pace, my heart pounded in my chest.
I dragged my feet up the porch steps with. I had made it home, and would be fine. I pulled open the door. To my surprise, it was not my house, but the house of the elderly couple that lived next-door. I slammed their door shut, and ran up to my house. This time I heard my mom's familiar voice. She was on the telephone and had the laundry basket in her hands. I shook her hard to get her attention. She stopped talking long enough to say, "Stop that Katie". I told her that it was an emergency, and after saying goodbye to her friend, she hung up. My mother than launched into a lecture on how I should know better than to interrupt her on the phone. I didn't hear anything after that, because I interrupted her once again. By this time she was pretty mad, but she listened when she heard me say "spider bite". After she heard my story, she began to cry. Then she lifted her chin and told me to go up to bed while she called the doctor.
The next morning I woke with a bright light shining in my eyes. It was not the sun, as I had guessed, but a tiny flashlight. I saw a man in white scrubs, looking down at me. I felt the blankets. They were not my own. I soon realized that I was in a hospital. There was an I-V in my arm. "Will I be okay?" I questioned the doctor. He told me to settle down and go back to sleep. I agreed to that with no argument. It must have been hours later when I awoke. I glanced around the open room. I heard short sobs coming from a corner. It was my mother. I t bothered me to see her cry. She was not a soft woman. I remember beginning to cry myself. When she heard me cry, she lifted her head and controlled herself. I asked her what was wrong. All she said was "You're so brave, honey". I then fell back to sleep. It was not the deep sleep I was used to. Instead it was a restless sleep. It was filled with horrible nightmares. I remember this one most clearly: I t was three days in the future. I was told by the doctor that my chance of survival was not good. After my mom gave me about a hundred hugs, they left me to sleep. It was then that a tiny spider crawled on my bed. I began talking to me. All I heard was "Trust me". That was when I awoke to find it was all a dream. The scary thing is that it wasn't a dream. There was a tiny spider on the bed sheet no more than two feet away from me. I t repeated the words I had just heard in my dream. "Why should I trust you? After that bite do you think I could ever trust a spider again?" The spider looked at me with a sympathetic look. He said, "I'm sorry that you have to feel this way about spiders. We are not all like the one who bit you. Actually most of us have never bit anyone. Please listen to me." I thought this over. Would he be lying? One more bite and I'm sure I will die. I took a deep breath and said "I will listen to you-this is my only chance of survival." He smiled at me and said to pick him up. After a prayer and a deep breath I let him craw onto my hand. A tickling sensation began to spread though my body. "I'm alive!"
So that was it. Here I am, remembering this horrifying experience that took place exactly one year ago. If I learned anything from that at all, it must be the fact that miracles do happen.
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