Small Places : Nick L Belardes [40 of 128]

• Milt stares at the spider. It never moves. He waits 10 minutes for it to move. I wait 10 minutes for him to move. It's a move off.
• I twitch. Milt comes back to my desk eight times. I hand him a completed newsletter that's a month late.
• "I'll look at it next week," he says. "Why is there a live cricket in your spider tank?" Milt asks. Me: "For effect.
• It helps make the spider look real." The next day the spider tank is on its side. The lid is off.
• I find Barbarella crawling on Kira de Frito's chair. I think about leaving it. Milt passes my desk.
• He has welts all over his face and neck like he has just wrestled a snake or giant spider. I take Barbarella home.
• Shark attack on a nearby beach. Some surfer was nearly chewed off his board. I click on the video link and see a chomped on surfboard.
• "Yeah broh, I was hangin' it goofy foot by the pier. Shark thought I was seal bait. But I looked into his eyes, and like, whoah, you know?"
• The closest beach is two hours away from this smoggy valley. The water is cold, the jellyfish are as big as people and the ocean is murky.