It was around 7:15PM--Rachid and I were enjoying nice after-dinner conversation with CC and her daughter, Jazzy, when we heard our little Pucker yelling from the bathroom, informing us that there was a spider in there. Just as Rachid asked to be excused and started to get up two seconds later, we heard the little Pucker let out the loudest shriek we've ever heard in our lives, screaming and almost laughing hysterically in a high-pitch voice.
We all rushed over to him, imagining a gigantic monster spider swollowing his whole left side, getting ready to insert a value-meal sized straw into his brain to suck the life out of him, only to find a tiny little baby spider crawling about 3 feet away from where he was standing. He was so freaked out we could not settle him down. He just continued to let out the blood-freezing shriek uncomprehendable to any humankind...nor to any spider spiecies, I'm sure.
So we all just stood there, we as in us and the baby spider all together, trying to understand this little boy's fear that was so real and so overwhelming to him. By the time we actually thought to comfort him, we could not help but to secretly (and not so secretly) suffer the silent but hysterical laugh.
As Rachid took him to get ready for bed, I just could not help wondering where such a forceful fear came from in his brief existance on earth. I saw the fear in his face, and I truly felt it in my heart as if it was my own. But yet, we have not had any spider-related incidents nor he's been exposed to any forms of media that displayed spiders. Can you imagine him ever, ever watching that scene from Harry Potter with those spiders in the forest?
In hopes of gaining a little insight into our little Pucker's psyche, I searched for articles that explained phobias. In one of them, J. Ruth Gendler--an artist, writer, and teacher from Berkeley, CA--was quoted as saying, "Fear has a large shadow, but he himself is small."
A pilgrimage to Berkley may be on the horizon for Rachid and me...

TEST, TEST, TEST!
Little Pucker! That's funny.