In Mexico it is relatively easy to find creatures of all shapes, sizes, and colors living in community with you in your house. The other day I found one of these little friends in the bathroom. He, the spider was black and large. With his legs stretched out he was around the size of the palm of my hand. He is not the biggest spider I have seen here but his size was noteworthy.

Normally when I find "friends" like this I find someone else to kill them because I struggle to kill something the size of a Michigan rodent with only a shoe. This time I enlisted the help of Chad one of the FYM's. After a brief photo session with the "friend" we were ready to eliminate his existence. Chad shoe in hand was ready. I stepped out about 10 feet away because spiders have been known to jump when they sense their life is in danger. Chad swung at the "friend" and made contact but not enough to kill him. The "friend" jumped to the left towards me and landed about five feet from me. I was stunned for a moment until I looked into his beady eyes. His eyes glared at me and communicated it was going to be his life or mine. One of us was going to die today and he did not want it to be him.

He took off in a swift run towards me ready to fight. I turned heal to toe and sprinted down the hall, screaming to Chad for help. All I could see flashing through my mind was a sci-fi movie I had watched where killer spiders were attacking people. The spider grew from being the size of the palm of my hand into being a 3 feet tall, killer determined to eat me. Within a flash it was over. I heard the comforting words of Chad saying the spider had been defeated. I was once again safe. Crisis was over and life went back to normal for everyone except the "friend."

Moral of the story: Fear puts things out of perspective.