The things I do for friends

It was 9:30pm and I was craving Dairy Queen. When we discovered one in Ardmore just five minutes from Kara and Paul's place, I couldn't get into that car fast enough. Dairy Queen was closed (sad face) but Wawa was open.

On the ride back to Kara's apartment when I saw a huge spider dart across the dashboard in front of me I couldn't get out of that car fast enough. I couldn't really form a sentence, it was more of an unbuckle-my-seatbelt-pull-my-legs-up-under-me-on-the-seat-huddle-against-the-window-and-scream until Kara was so frustrated with me that she commanded me to use words.

Kara: "WHAT IS IT?!"

Kat: "SPIDER!"

Kara: "EW!  What do I do???"

Kat: "Pull over!"

Kara: "Where?!"

Kat: "Anywhere!  Pull over!"

Kara made a right off of Montgomery Ave onto a residential street that was dark and had no traffic. The spider had crawled across the gear shift console and onto her purse. Kara flicked the spider off and we both jumped out of the car. The spider crawled behind the break pedal and up underneath the wheel. It disappeared into the cables within the dashboard.

Then we waited...

Kara: "What do we do?"

Kat: "Call Paul?"

We both knew this was a stupid idea. Paul's car was in the shop, so there was no way for him to get to us. And even if he could, it's not like he could handle a disappearing spider any better than we could. Plus, he probably would have just laughed at us and left us to our own devices. But there was no way either one of us was getting back into that car as long as the spider was still in there somewhere... crawling around.  

Neither of us knew what to do - we both equally hated and feared spiders. But I manned up and took off my shoe ready to kill it... if it ever re-appeared. We must have stood on that dark street for at least ten minutes, just waiting. Finally, I gave in and agreed to drive us back to Kara's place so long as I was allowed to speed, and we left the lights on inside the car so Kara could keep watch for the spider, and as soon as she saw it I would pull over again. So we slowly got back into the car when we saw it scuttle across the top of the dashboard. I screamed and tried to smash it with my shoe, but it was safely wedged in between the dash and the windshield where I couldn't get it. I retreated and it disappeared through the grille back down below the dashboard.  

So we waited... again.  

The little bugger came back out and I smashed him before he had a chance to crawl anywhere else. I never felt so heroic or accomplished in my life. Yes, I realize that's a bit pathetic. That night, Kara and I set out on an innocent drive for ice cream, and returned heroes from an epic battle. After 21 years of friendship, our bond was reinforced and strengthened over one friend's selfless sacrifice for the other, and the shoe-smashing demise of a crafty opponent.      

bffs