January 10th - Recluse Spider

About eleven years ago I lost my right index finger. I was sleeping on the floor at a house on an island in Maine. The lady who was our hostess was from Texas. She had rented this house for three months and there were boxes everywhere. Anyway, we were her houseguests. That night, I went to sleep on the floor because that's where I like to sleep. I had noticed a spider crawling across the floor earlier during the day. In the middle of the night, I woke up and realized a spider had bitten my finger. It had come up to Maine in those boxes from Texas or Oklahoma or Louisiana, wherever our host was from. It was a spider that does not live in Maine. They are called recluse spiders or violin spiders because they have a brown shaped form on their backs that look like a violin. I had never heard of them before then. Recluse spiders are poisonous which makes them very serious insects. You don't mess with that recluse spider! They call them recluse spiders too because they like to hang out in the dark in the corners of the house. I think all spiders like to lurk in the dark. For example, in the spring, when you go looking for the pile of gardening tools your put away in the fall in the corner of your basement, you may see spiders. Some might even be hanging out in your gloves. Or, when you go to take the holiday ornaments out of boxes you may see some spiders then too. Anyway, I was telling you about my encounter with the recluse spider. The spider's bite made my finger swell up and turn a bluish-purple color. My finger also got very cold. I had to go to hospital to find out what was wrong. The doctors gave me large doses of antihistamines and immediately started working on my finger. They managed to get blood into one of the joints but it was two late for the other two. I could not control those two joints so the doctors had to cut them off. So, that's the story of how I lost my finger. Don't worry, it did not hurt at all and after the first day of not having those two joints, I was fine. Now, after all this happened I met a man who makes wonderful prostheses (artificial body parts) and he made some artificial fingers for me. He made some that were a little tanned for when I get brown in the summer and some that were for during the winter when I am not so brown. These fingers look pretty real and I used to wear them but I don't bother anymore. I think they may be in my closet somewhere.

- Jacques d'Amboise