Curiosity
By Ken Olson
A tiny flash of reflected sunlight stops him dead on the secluded spur trail. He moves sideways slightly to catch the light at a new angle. A massive wall of glistening silk lights up directly in front of him. It spans the trail from a spruce tree north to a leaning hemlock on the downhill south side. A dislodged root juts out over the trail like a wooden step.
A hiker on this trail could easily trip over the protruding root and fall face first into the immense web. He shudders at the image in his head, allowing for a moment the idea that a spider could plan and execute such an elaborate trap, but reminding himself that imagination can run as wild as the terrain itself in the remote forests of these Cascade mountains.
Inching forward, he spots the builder. A dark brown orb with two inline yellow spires on its back is furiously spinning something into a silk ball. A substantial arachnid to be sure, but smaller than he imagined by the size of its web. It stops abruptly as he maneuvers for a peek at the object. He can just make it out. WTF? A plastic bottle cap. What does a spider need with a chunk of plastic?
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