By, Chris Frieberg

    Once upon a time there was a little spider named Anansi. Anansi was born abnormally smaller than any other spider. He lived in a small colony in Africa and was a black widow, one of the few remaining black widows in Africa. Due to his abnormal size all of the other spiders made fun of him and brought him misery. For several days Anansi hid himself from all others in a dead stump. He didn’t want to see the light of day ever again because he believed his life would be like this forever if he never grew. Two whole weeks went by, and Anansi sat in his stump praying for something or someone to make his life better. During these two weeks the colony spiders began starving for food. The black widows couldn’t make webs fast enough to catch any prey, so they all gathered and tried to make one big enough and strong enough to catch enough food for the colony. Hours upon hours went by as the spiders put their work into making the web. At exactly the eighth hour of webbing the net, the spiders came to a problem. None of the spiders had any web string left in them. They began panicking, and all of the spiders believed they were doomed for starvation.

"Oh is this life ever going to get better," said Anansi who was still hiding in his moldy stump.

All of a sudden shouts roar out along with screams of rescuers.

"Anansi!"

"Anansi!"

"Anansi!"

Anansi heard these cries, and immediately he crawled faster than ever out of his stump. He reached the top and saw every single spider of the colony yelling for him. At first he was shocked and only imagined what it could be, but then he thought all they were going to do is make fun of him.

"Go away!" Anansi shouted.

"Anansi we NEED you!" yelled one spider.

"All you guys ever do is yell at me and make fun of me for how small I am! There isn’t anything I’m ever going to be good for so just leave me alone!" replied Anansi.

"Anansi listen up! We are all sorry for making fun of you and we never really meant it! I guess we just felt careless and said the things we said. We are terribly sorry and need your help. The existence of us black windows depends on you! Please forgive us!" said another spider.

Anansi thought for a moment and realized how bad it felt being made fun of. Then he thought of how horrible and alone he felt for those weeks sitting in that dead stump.

Anansi came to his senses and realized they needed him. "Okay, I forgive you, but what do you need from me so badly?" he asked.

"The colony has ran out of food, and if we don’t complete this web we started then we will ALL starve to death. Our existence will die out! The web can’t be completed because we all ran out of string, and if we don’t finish it now then it will crumble and we will starve to death." Answered a spider.

"Are you saying the whole colony needs me?" asked Anansi.

"Yes! Will you please come quickly and finish the web?" they cried.

"Of course I will!" he answered back.

Anansi ran quickly to the spot of the web and saw there was a big hole in the middle of the web that had to be finished. He spun faster than ever, webbing every possible spot that needed to be webbed. Finally he finished it and the web was complete.

All of the black widows cried with out Anansi’s name in happiness and joy. At a time where things came tearing him down and his faith was rotting away, it was Anansi that came to save day! It was everyone who hurt him that helped bring him back up. If it wasn’t for Anansi the black widows in Africa would be extinct, but thanks to him they are still alive, along with the colony he lives in. To this day the colony has been named after him. Anansiville they called it, and he was never known as the abnormal spider ever again.