Mister Araña

Short Story: Mister Araña

Solitude. It’s peaceful; It’s rejuvenating; it’s casi callado. I don’t think I’ve been to such an unfamiliar place that has made me feel so comfortable. I am curious, excited and nervous but calm to meet new beings. Even los bichos are fun to find and listen to; although I still could do without their bites.

Oh, look! Un extrañjero with red pelo. I want to meet him, but I am also a little shy. He was nervous too, but I grabbed con dos hojas and ran to a friend of a friend. He stayed calm for most of the walk and just stared at me. I glanced at him and back at the path as I continued to walk.

¿Christian, quien es? 

¡Oh, Mister Araña! I am surprised you found him!

Whispers, “Is he friendly?”

“Yeah, he can have a strong grip sometimes, if he is nervous.”

“Can you shake his hand first?”

Christian slowly and gently extends his hand out to Mister Araña. I could see a little nervousness in both their eyes, but the Mister Araña reached out gently too.

I reached out my hand. One mano, dos mano, tres mano, cuatro mano, cinco, seis, siete y ocho!

¡Hello Mister Araña, much gusto!

He was a little nervous still, but he warmed up after he walked around a while. You could see the innocence in his ojos and his pasos were so gentle and soft.

We had a nice walk back to where we met and parted at the tree.

¡Adiós Mister! ¡Tarantula! Pura Vida!

True Short Tale 

This story is a true story and happened one afternoon in the Eternal Children’s Rain Forrest near the station of San Gerardo. Our study abroad group was stepped out for the afternoon to walk around the rainforest and do a bit of writing. I became very fond of the birds in Costa Rica partly due to another we had and partly because I was just mesmerized by the life in Costa Rica and fell behind the group with another peer. The group seemed to go just around the corner and we didn’t take too much time to follow. We continued up the road behind their fading voices. After a while we weren’t so sure we were still on the same trail as them; we began to look for footprints in the mud and grass. We ventured down and back three trails until we finally found tracks on the fourth. It wasn’t a panic though, but enjoyable. We knew they couldn’t be too far and we knew the way back to San Gerardo. Along the way we have millipedes upon millipedes and more millipedes, a snake slithers by, and bird teased us with its call as it jumped up the trail alongside us in the trees never revealing itself.  

This is the tarantula I found hiking around San Gerardo int he Eternal Children's Rain Forest. I tried identifying him, but it is still unknown what kind of tarantula he is. 

We had been gone awhile by the time we caught up with the others, and they were finishing up their writing. So, I went a little farther and was getting ready to sit down and scribble down what I could when I saw this little tarantula cross the road. I had held a wild tarantula once before in southern Utah and I was excited to try and hold this one. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t poisonous and one of my peers was pretty knowledgeable about reptiles and such, so I thought he might know. It took a little to get the little tarantula onto a couple of leaves so I could carry it to my friend to ask. He said he didn’t think it was and slowly held it first, then we let him crawl amongst our hands. It was probably a good thing it didn’t bite anybody though because I have been trying to identify it and haven’t found a match yet.  

Nevertheless, it was a fun experience to hold our eight-legged friend and inspired me to write this short story along with the prompt from my professor.