It must be close to midnight, thought the girl, because a shroud of thin mist began to rise off the ground. The mist always rises at midnight, Andrea thought as she stepped nervously out into the clearing. By now, she could see and hear everything going on. There was a male figure with gorgeous gray-white hair with silver streaks in it. He wore a white priest’s robe with a Catholic cross of caravan. The priest held a bottle of holy water in his right hand, his hand trembling slightly. A rosary necklace was wrapped around his fingers; the priest clutched the deep-red beaded necklace tightly. A fair-skinned man was standing a few steps from the priest; the man had a head full of dark, coarse hair. His hair was neat, cut in the shape of a neatly bobbed Afro. He was a black man, the janitor. Another man stood almost directly behind him who was Caucasian and the owner and manager of the fair. There was one more man, a short, slim man who stood out just a step in front of the others. His skin was red like anger. This was the Hopi Indian – the she-spider’s guide. The four men were angry and bickering at each other, not realizing that someone was watching them.
Andrea’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped open in surprise. She saw the woman spider Ana Anansi standing miserably in the midst of the circle of men. Ana Anansi wasn’t a mean joke made up by the townsfolk. Her pale-yellow skin, hair, hazel-yellow green eyes and her nose, mouth, teeth, boobs, stomach, thin waistline, and the horror of her all, those terrible, eight black widow spider legs were all very, very real! Andrea swallowed the lump in her throat, overcome with chills from fright. Ana Anansi bowed her head slightly and covered her eyes with her hands briefly. When she removed them, tears stained her creepy eyes. Ana Anansi shook her head slowly from side to side, looking down upon herself like she was a shameful abomination before God and all of humankind.
The men drove the loud trucks out of the fairgrounds, and they came to a complete stop before pulling out into the empty street. The men pressed down on the trucks’ breaks, making a screeching sound in the distance. The sound blocked out the noise of the conversation between the four men down by the big bush. As the trucks drove off and away from the fairgrounds, there was complete silence, and Andrea was able to hear the words spoken by the men.
“My people and I allow you to use our land for your fair every year in October.” Small Eagle’s tone was harsh, as he was angry. “You and your people bring all kind of attractions and we, the Hopi Indians, never complain to the white man. But when Hopi Indian bring beautiful and singing Ana Anansi, you point the finger at us and criticize us harshly and your cruel criticism hurts Hopi Indian and Ana Anansi. Tonight, you and your men say that I cannot bring Ana Anansi back to your fair anymore.” Small Eagle pointed his finger at the men, and they were sneering at him as if he were crazy. “You’re forgetting that this is Indian land, and that Indian was here in America first, white men!” Small Eagle finished speaking. His face was red, and he looked disappointed.
“This isn’t about who was here first, Small Eagle, and you know this! This is about Ana Anansi, and she is an abomination before God and in the eyes of the law!” The priest spoke out against the woman spider.
“Father Jeffrey is right, Small Eagle. Ana Anansi is very beautiful and she has the voice of an angel, but she is part spider and it makes her foul, poison, and deadly,” said the janitor in a baritone voice. “All the money Ana Anansi brought to the table tonight was the reason we continued to allow her to the show as the main attraction. I admit that we are wrong, and may God forgive us.” Mitch ended his words and backed behind Father Jeffrey slightly.
“Small Eagle, you must never bring Ana Anansi here to Baron’s Hollowpoint again. She is sin, iniquity, and a deadly beast! Such a creature as Ana should not be allowed to remain living on earth!” Raven Baxcy bellowed; he owned the fair.
Father Jeffrey doused each side of the woman spider with holy water. Ana Anansi placed her hands over her ears and shook her head in disagreement.
“That which is evil must be destroyed!” Father Jeffrey said as he doused the bottle of holy water out in front of Ana Anansi. It fell in sprinkles around the front part of Ana Anansi’s eight black widow spider legs.
“No!” she screamed. The sound was like a cry of a banshee.
“Your Ana Anansi must be destroyed, Small Eagle. She is not of God. She is of spider!” Father Jeffrey scorned.
“Leave her, and let the vampires handle Ana Anansi,” Mitch provoked.
“No, Ana Anansi is a spider, and vampires cannot control spiders. The spider is poison, and their poison is acid. It will eat through vampires and destroy them!” Raven warned.
“No one is destroying my Ana Anansi! If you and your men try to harm her, there will be war on these fairgrounds tonight,” Small Eagle said. “Be warned that Ana Anansi is strong, and she can break you and your men in half with one hand!”
“Whoa now, just because you and your darn people arrived in America first don’t mean that you can run over us. You might own the land, but the town and the fair belong to the white man. Ana Anansi is a prospect of evil, and any being of evil or of the devil cannot be allowed to live,” Raven said. Small Eagle was becoming angrier by the minute.
“She will be destroyed on the fairgrounds tonight and if you try to stop us, we’ll destroy you too, Small Eagle,” Mitch assured him.
“In the Bible, the ten commandments state that thou shalt not kill!” Small Eagle cried out, trying to deliver Ana Anansi from the hand of death.
“Tell us, Small Eagle – before we destroy your beautiful she-spider Ana Anansi, how did she come to be this way?” Raven questioned. Father Jeffrey and Mitch stood quietly, anticipating an answer from Small Eagle.
Without warning, Ana Anansi spoke in an Indian tongue. She spoke words that Father Jeffrey, Raven, and Mitch did not understand. They were in total confusion as to what Ana was speaking; her voice trembled as she spoke. Ana Anansi’ voice sounded of warning, persecution, humiliation, and great pain! Father Jeffrey cried out to God in the Biblical Hebrew tongue, making a cross as he doused holy water from the bottle, emptying the last few drops from the bottle onto the ground in front of Ana Anansi.
Raven looked around him for something, a weapon to destroy Ana Anansi with.
Mitch spoke up: “Small Eagle, what does she speak to us?” Mitch seemed worried and slightly fearful.
Ana Anansi broke into song; her voice was beautiful and it was Irish. Ana’s singing nearly made the men forget that what was standing before them wasn’t at all evil, but sweet as an angel. Her voice nearly drew them to follow and believe in the spider. Father Jeffrey’s praying broke the hold Ana’s voice held over the men.
Andrea watched carefully as Ana removed a small bag from the inside of her boobs and began eating the creepy content inside the bag. She ate one piece at a time, humming a different tune. Her voice was amazing. Andrea almost became ill when she saw what Ana Anansi was eating. It was a small popcorn bag filled with fried horseflies! Disgusted and nauseated, Andrea turned her head away for a brief moment while the feeling of nausea passed. She turned and watched the scene again and saw that Ana had downed the bag of fried horseflies. Small Eagle resumed talking.
“Some centuries ago,” Small Eagle began with a heavy sigh. He was becoming weary of fussing with the men over Ana Anansi. “In Dublin, Ireland, in its days of old, a young teenage Irish girl became a wiccan witch, and this type of witch is believed by many to be the most powerful witch of all witches. The practice is white magic. Sahara Collins wanted desperately to become the leader of her occult, and she’d do anything to gain the title of head witch.”
Small Eagle paused briefly before he continued talking, regardless of Ana Anansi’s continual singing. She was attempting to