Falling Stars by Charles Sheehan-Miles Read Free Book Online

heard the sound of a siren.
    “Crank, stop the car!” I screamed.
    “Really, all of this is unnecessary…” Sean said, his voice level and calm.  
    He was the only one calm, because Crank yanked the steering wheel over as he braked suddenly, pulling the car into a sickening skid down the emergency lane. All of us, the spider probably included, screamed at the top of our lungs as the car skidded to a stop.
    Half a breath later, Carrie, Crank and I jumped over the sides out of the car only to find ourselves faced with a police car screeching to a stop behind us.  
    When the cop saw all of us pouring out of the car, he popped his car door open and shouted, “Everybody on the ground!”
    Carrie screamed again, because the police officer, who saw all of us jumping out of the car like clowns, or gang bangers maybe, drew his weapon.
    I dove to the ground. So did Crank and Carrie.  
    Everything went silent. Except for Sean, who was still in the car, and held the wriggling, six-inch diameter spider up in the air. He held it firmly by its thorax, and the various appendages waved and wriggled in a nightmarish display.  
    “I told you all, don’t worry, it’s not a tarantula.”
    The cop went pale. “What the—what? Put that thing…”
    Sean smiled. “It’s okay. This is a Calisoga spider. It’s often mistaken for a tarantula, but his venom isn’t dangerous to humans. He will bite, though.”
    “Sean, for God’s sake,” Crank said.
    The cop put his pistol away. “Son, can you step out of the car and put that…spider…um….”
    “Yes, sir,” Sean replied.  
    Everyone waited in silence. Sean opened the door and got out of the car, still holding the spider in his left hand.
    “Can I see that?” the police officer asked.
    Crank stirred, and the cop said, “You stay right where you are.”
    Crank froze.
    The police officer walked over to Sean. “That’s some spider.”
    “He crawled out from under the dashboard.”
    “That why you all were all over the road?”
    “Yes,” Sean affirmed. “Plus, my brother’s a terrible driver. He was speeding before, but I convinced him to slow down. Did you know the likelihood of an accident increases three percent for every additional kilometer per hour?”
    “That sounds serious,” the police officer agreed.   “You sure this little guy ain’t poisonous?”   He poked a finger at the spider, who waved its legs aggressively. I shuddered.
    “He isn’t. But his bite will hurt.”
    “How do you know it’s a him?”
    “Educated guess,” Sean replied. “You can’t be one hundred percent sure. But this one, if you look here…”   He pointed at the spider’s…stomach?
    Carrie looked up. “Can I see?”
    I shuddered again.  
    The cop shrugged. “Come on,” he said and Carrie got up, brushing dust off her front as she approached Sean and the cop.
      “Right here on his abdomen,” Sean continued, pointing, “you can see apiandrous fusillade .”  
    “The what?” the cop said.
    “It’s um…kind of a silk-spinning gland,” Carrie supplied, which caused the cop to do a double take that she had a clue what Sean was talking about.
    “Male spiders have an extra set on their abdomen. Or at least…most do,” Sean explained.
    “It’s hard to tell without a female to compare it to,” Carrie responded.   “People mistake the gender of spiders all the time.”
    “It’s true,” Sean told the cop, who stared at them both incredulously. “Even experts sometimes can’t tell if a spider is male or female.”
    I looked up and met Crank’s eyes. The cop hadn’t told us to get up, and I wasn’t going to without permission. Crank looked over to Sean and Carrie, then back to me.  
    He grinned.   I did too. Who else in the world but our siblings would have known that?
    “Well,” the cop said, “I guess if that little bastard had crawled up between my legs I’d have been driving all over the place too. I’m gonna let y’all go with a warning.