AncilBookman went up to the door first, leaving us behind and knocked. Almost instantly the door flung open revealing a middle aged woman who looked incredibly short in comparison to Bookman who was about 6.5 feet tall.
“Can I help you?” The woman asked, stern and abrupt.
“Yes, I looking for Anansi,” Bookman said.
The middle aged woman eyed us down profiling us from head to toe with a snarky eye that made me feel extremely nervous. After some thought and bit more inspection, she invited us in with an abrupt, “Come in. Wipe your feet.”
The floor of the house was incredibly sticky making it almost impossible to walk. Cornell, Sara, Saraya, Justin, Megan, Melanie and I struggled to walk on the sticky webbed floors, while the middle aged woman and Bookman somehow glided through gracefully.
“Tip toe, tip toe, don’t step,” the middle aged woman who had introduced herself as Maggie instructed. We did as she said and it helped but we still couldn’t keep up with Maggie and Bookman who weren’t only graceful in their stride but quick as well. In my struggles to walk and keep up with the rest I couldn’t help but notice the web furniture throughout the house. There were chairs, tables and decor all made up entirely of white web. The material seemed finely woven together like knitted clothes but harder and stickier. There were even light bulbs made of web that glowed from the inside. It was really weird and I was beginning to wonder how Maggie, who seemed human, lived in the house.
Maggie led us through a door and into a large vacant room. In the middle of the room high up in the ceiling was perched a giant spider dangling upside down from a web that projected from his lower body. The only human thing about him was the pair of glasses that sat in the middle of his eight eyes. He seemed to be so caught up in a book that he was reading that he didn’t even notice us when we entered. I couldn’t see much of the book that he was reading, but the title was Lost for — something. I couldn’t see the last word.
“Andy!!” Maggie shouted.
“Andy?” Megan laughed.
“You have a problem with my name LITTLE GIRL?” Anansi said while lowering himself down from the ceiling.
Sara chuckled.
“No problem whatsoever Andy,” Megan jeered.
“It is Mr. Anansi to you,” Anansi said. “Bookman why you bring all these children in my nest?”
“I know that you always loved children,” Bookman answered.
“Loved. Past tense. My love for children has grown cold since a herd of them try to bite off my ass the other day. Who knew that faceless children could bite so hard?” Anansi robbed his lower abdomen then said. “Children is pain in the ass. Literally.”
“We just need a place to stay overnight. We will be gone by tomorrow,” Cornell said.
“You ask me if I have space for allyuh? I look like a hotel?”
“But you always have room for them……Faaairymaaaids,” Bookman said.
“What Fairymaids?” Maggie inquired suspiciously.
“Welcome to my humble abode!!” Anansi said in an attempt to change the topic. “I always have room for guests. Make yourself at home.”
“Thanks…..Andy,” Megan quipped.
Anansi scrunched his spidery eight-eyed face, annoyed.
We all introduced ourselves except Sara. I was about to tell Anansi her name but Sara quickly shut me down. Anansi made light of it then led us to a room which he made on the spot with a little bit of web action.
“I have enough supplies to keep allyuh for two days. But after the third, allyuh have to get allyuh ass out of my house,” Anansi said.
“We’ll be out in the morning,” Cornell said.
“And what allyuh plan on doing after? Might I ask?” Anansi asked. “Go out in the forests, and do what? Dead?”
Everyone looked at each other waiting on someone to answer.
“We’re heading to Mas Camp,” I said boldly
“Mas Camp?” Anansi asked, stretching his words. “It have no way allyuh could get to Mas Camp alive. You know how much pressure it was for me just to leave. I lucky to be here right now.”
“Well if you could do it, we could too,” I said.
“Well, I could swim and swim stealthily. I don’t think everyone in your camp capable of swimming all the way to Tobago without detection. And besides, Mas Camp was in an uproar when I leave. They won’t be any help.”
“Uproar over what?” Megan asked.
