Read Felix Takes the Stage Online
Authors: Kathryn Lasky
Felix Takes the Stage (9 page)
A
nd so Edith and her three children crept under the crack of the door and entered the rare books room of the Boston Public Library. They saw a man at a desk. Around his forehead was a band with a small light on it. He held a threaded needle in his hand and was bent over the pages of an ancient manuscript, which he appeared to be sewing together. There was a nutty odor of glue and wood swirling through the air, and just a tinge of mold. The man looked up from his work and peered in their direction.
“Freeze!” Edith commanded. The man peered harder. Edith was sure that he saw them, but he did not seem frightened. Not at all.
Then the most extraordinary thing happened. The man stood up and walked over to them. He bent down, and Edith's head swirled with confusion. Was he going to stomp on them? They couldn't scuttle away fast enough! She saw Felix float a line up to the rung of a desk chair.
“Welcome!” the man said. “I am so glad to see you. They tell me that book lice are quite tasty â tasty from a spider's point of view. There are plenty here. They eat paper. You will be doing a great service to the rare books collection if you would indulge yourself.”
“Mom, what does he mean âindulge'?” Julep whispered.
“Eat?” Jo Bell asked.
“You mean he's letting us stay?” Felix asked.
“He's not frightened at all. Isn't this lovely, children?”
“Is this the Place Where Time Has Stopped?” Julep asked.
“No, but I think we're getting closer,” Edith said. “I think we can settle.”
And so they did.
A
s I'm sure you know, real spiders don't use words to talk. Nor do they read, nor do they wear hats as in Stephen Gilpin's wonderful illustrations. But here are a few things that are true about brown recluse spiders and the other animals that appear in this book.
Spiders have multiple eyes â usually eight (except for brown recluses and their relatives, which have only six). In spite of all these eyes, most spiders do not see well.
Spiders DO receive a lot of information through their ability to pick up vibrations. The tiny hairs on their legs work like motion detectors and alert them to the smallest movements.
Spider blood is clear, with a bluish tint. This is because spider blood, unlike human blood, contains copper.
Brown recluse spiderwebs look slightly blue.
Spiders can regrow lost legs if they are still fairly young.
Spider silk is much stronger than any rope or even steel cable that humans make.
Pirate spiders, or Mimetidea, do eat other spiders.
There really was a theater cat known as Boy Cat. He really did jump into the lap of the late Princess Margaret of England and eat the bouquet she was holding.
There really was an infestation of hobo spiders, or
Tegenaria agrestis
, in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s.
Finally, it's true that brown recluse spiders, like Edith and her three children, are very shy. But they can be very dangerous if they do bite. Their venom is toxic and causes necrotic wounds, which means that their bite causes human flesh to die. In some cases, brown recluse spider bites can be fatal. So enjoy reading about brown recluse spiders, but please â DON'T PLAY WITH THEM!