The are just some times in life when one has to do something by oneself. When I was eight years old, I came to this realization while watching a spider slowly make its way across my bedroom wall.

"Are you sure you'll be all right here alone?" my mother asked me before she'd left.

"Yeah. I'll be fine, " I said, secretly glad I'd be home alone, and no one would be there to bother me.

"Well, your dad's out front if you need anything, she said, turning to leave.

I nodded and went to my room as soon as she'd left. The sun lit my room with a gentle glow, so I left the light off and pulled a book out of my worn book bag. Ordinarily I might have been doing something other than just sitting and reading a book, especially when nobody else was in the house, but it was my first time reading Winnie the Pooh, and I'd loved it so far. I couldn't wait to continue reading it. I leaned against my bed and settled in to spend a long time reading. Not more than two sentences later, I saw a slight movement out of the corner of my eye.

Turning to look, I saw an enormous spider crawling across the wall, its thin legs moving quickly and efficiently. Then, suddenly, it stopped.

I panicked. It had been bad enough that there was a gross spider in my room, but once a spider stopped, one could never tell what it would do next. It might suddenly jump on someone, for example.

Backing away, I stared at it, too frightened to do anything. I wanted someone to kill it, but I knew that I didn't want to be the one to do such a thing. I also knew that if I screamed for my dad, he'd be angry that I'd interrupted him from whatever he'd been doing, just to kill a little spider. I knew this from experience. I had to act fast or the spider would soon make its way into my closet. I didn't want to think about what it would be like to pull a shirt out of the closet and see a spider on it.

Bracing myself, I ran to get one of my brother's shoes out of his room (I didn't want spider on my own), and I smacked the spider with it.

I'd killed the spider! I felt as if I'd slayed a dragon.

Pulling the shoe away, I made a point to ignore the dead spider on the wall and went to innocently place my brother's shoe where it had been before.

I walked outside, where my brother was washing the car and getting soaked in the process.

"What've you been doing?" he asked, looking at me.

"Oh, nothing." I smiled and went back inside to finish my book.