The Spider in my Bathroom

As I sat in the bathroom giving company to the bucket beside me, I looked at a spider trying to spin a web in the corner where the walls touched the ceiling. A sad smile gave way to an involuntary shrug as I visualized how short-lived its haven would be. With a swab of the broom it’ll be taken to the dust. I stared at the tiles of the bathroom wall through the raining shower; they were in turquoise with a tad of blue. I smelled the wet skin of my arm, and kept my nose as a refugee in my arm’s territory. “You smell so nice” she had said once. I wonder what that nice meant. The bucket was amazingly noisy, singing its tune with the shower drops that fell onto it. Don’t give me no company, I shoved it aside. It still sang for me, although in a muffled tone. She had hugged me tight, but I could feel a thin plate of air between us. And there she was waving her hand just once from the departing lounge. I have been under the shower for a long time now. But I had not the strength to get out of it. For once, it’s been constant; for once it’s predictable; for once it’s in my control. I did not wait to see her one last time. I’ve had enough in my clay pot, and I knew of the impending drought. She could smile through it, even I did the same. But, does she know that somewhere I get torn in this uncertainty that reins our lives? Perhaps she is torn as well. The spider swung to its right and it was followed by a thin thread. Hopeless, I thought. HOPELESS, I yelled. The spider went on, weaving into the future. And I sunk my teeth deep into my arms.

Late in the night, I went to the bathroom to see my friend of misery. He was now resting in his fully knit web. Perhaps I should sleep awhile, I thought and went into my bedroom where beams of the streetlight passing through the window flooded my bed.

I slept well that night.

In the morning, I did not see the spider or any remnants of its adobe. The maid’s mop did it all.

But she’ll have to come back to do it again!


To bring oneself to love uncertainty, one has to learn to accept even the most shocking of the probabilities, if it ever comes true. So, in a way it is all about acceptance.