The Meadow

The waving tan grass parted against the gray sky as I ran my fingers through it.

“Here!” I sat back on my haunches as my brother approached, I could recognize his footsteps In a heartbeat, long and confident. I didn’t even need to look at him to know he was beside me.

“Ah, that’s a spooky looking one.” He kneeled down and scooped his hands to pick it up, slowly parting them just a slit, like an eye opening to a sun. I saw the spider faintly in the shadows, assessing it.

“It’s just a common field spider, but I think it’s the biggest we’ve seen so far! The books say they should only reach about well…” I eyeballed an average size with my fingers.

“This big.”

My brother looked closer, squinting at the specimen. After he had his fill of looking at it he tilted his head at me with a smile covered by his lowered head.

“I bet you could rattle off any part of that volume, huh?”

“It’s nothing special… Just- Well- Bugs are cool! … To me.” I itched the back of my hand and looked down at the ground.

“Sorry if I keep repeating that.”

He laughed through his teeth, it sounded like the hiss of a rattlesnake. That was a unique thing about him, had I started copying it? Recently it was hard to tell.

“If it’s important to you, tell me as many times as you want.”