THE SPIDER AND THE FLY

This morning as I was leaning on the deck railing in the sun for an early look at the lake, I spotted right beside my elbow a little gray jumping spider that had just captured a big blue-bottle fly in a paleosavvy grip about the bulging red eyes, the fly now upside down and buzzing helpfully right into the spider's jaws, legs flailing in the long-legged grip.

The spider, no doubt worried at my looming and nearing presence, nevertheless stayed in place, lengthening and strengthening its hold at every pause in the fly's movement, injecting its relaxing venom until the struggle waned to stillness... When at last it could afford to move, the spider carried the inert fly down into a crevice in the wood joint...

When I later looked into the crevice, there was nothing to be seen. The whole drama somehow put me in mind of over-the-counter derivatives, though without the greed...

As if it's not happening all over the world...