This story is about Mister, and goes back to my happy
childhood. We lived in NYC in Manhattan on 130 something
street, in a three story brownstone that housed many of my
relatives. At this time I was not yet five years old. When
we lived in this neighborhood I had not yet started school
and I started kindergarten at five. By the time I went to
school we had moved to another neighborhood.
On the corner of 130 something and Amsterdam was a
combination Pharmacy and Soda Fountain store. It was owned
by Mister.
He was a Jewish man and a could not get my
immature tongue around his name so I just called him
Mister.
The building my family lived in was on the same side of the street, three buildings east of Amsterdam which
ran north and south. Mister was a dapper little old man maybe in his late sixties. In the winter his uniform at
the pharmacy besides his white pharmacy overcoat was a flannel checkered shirt, with matching vest, tie, slacks
and well polished penny loafers in black or brown depending on the color combination of the day. He had beautiful
skin, with rosy cheeks, blue eyes, rimless round bifocal spectacles, resting on the tip of his nose. He smelled like
Allspice. The top of his head was shiny and bald with a pure white fringe of abundant shiny hair around the sides
of his head. He also had beautiful white teeth. Today, I wonder if the teeth were false. He always had a big smile
and a warm welcoming handshake for anyone who came into his store.
If you had a problem he would listen and try to help. He was very kind to his two employees. He loved
children. He always favored me with a piece of caramel,
mint, or lollypop when I came to his store. Saying "Here
is a sweet for the sweetest little girl in New York." Lifting me up by my hands and spinning me around, to my
delight. Mom would always stop by his store just to say hi
or to pick up the seemingly endless supply of medications
for my asthma. I loved Mister I thought he was wonderful.
And I will never forget him because as far as I'm concerned
he saved my mother's life, from pure evil.
One night I had a nightmare. I dreamed that my mother and
I had just gotten off the bus and were walking home past
Mister's store. As things are in dreams. I saw in my
minds eye a spider on the roof of the building Mister's
store was in. Suddenly the spider began to grow until it's
body was about five feet long, add to that the legs and you
have a gargantuan arachnid, and I knew it wanted to kill my
mother. In the dream I screamed, "Mommy the spider wants
to kill you pointing at the roof". My mom looked in the
direction I was pointing in time to see, two huge hairy
legs step over the ledge of the roof. That was all she
needed to see, she picked me up turned around and started
running for Mister's store. She didn't see the whole
spider but I did. It was so big it's body completely
covered one of the windows on the side of the building. In
addition it was headed diagonally toward us with amazing
speed. Mom, got into the store and locked the door behind
her. Mister, was surprised, she would do this but could
tell she was terrified. What's wrong Mrs. S, why are you so
pale? My mother was primarily Spanish speaking. So what
she said was, "This big black thing, it try to kill me and
the baby!!" Mister, was confused but he thought my mother
was talking about a black man. He said, "Now Mrs. S. it's
not nice to refer to people as things. But I will call the
police." Mom said, "No people, no people, big black many
legs, it kill, it kill!" Now while this confusing
conversation is going on, I can see in my minds eye what
the spider is doing and sense what it's thinking. It's
thinking it can't come into the store, someone might
actually see it. Usually, it can only be seen by it's
intended victim. But for some reason it could not
understand or explain, it knew I could see it and I should
not have been able to. I had a psychic link to my mom and despite the
inconvenience of my ability to see it, the spider knew it
had to complete it's mission of killing my mother.
It was walking back and forth on the wall of the building over the
door to Mister's store. And getting very angry and
impatient. So far it seemed to be invisible to everyone
else. However, through the glass door of the store I could
see people walking by and they would look up over the door
of the store and shiver and move away from the door. I
could also feel that it was terribly evil.
By this time Mister had called the police. Than he said, "I'll just go
out there and talk to the man and tell him I called the
police, maybe he will go away, and no one will get into
trouble." My mother grabbed his arm and said, "No man, no
man big black thing, it kill, it kill, no go out, it kill
you!!" My mother got between Mister and the door, by this
time the employees and two customers in the store were
getting alarmed wondering what my mother was talking
about. I was crying and pushing Mister back
saying, "Please, don't go, don't go wait for police!!" He
unlocked the door, moved me and my mother aside, and
started to walk out, my mother again got in his way, and I
was in the back pulling on his pants, trying to keep him
from going out. My mom was now, just outside the door to
Mister's store and the spider thought it had it's chance to
kill her and got ready to spring. But at that very moment,
Mister exchanged places with my mother to go out of the
store first saying, "I will take care of it, I'm sure he
won't harm me." The spider jumped and it killed Mister, as
the police sirens could be heard in the distance. I woke
up screaming at the top of my lungs, "No, don't kill him,
don't kill Mister, don't kill Mister!!!" continuing to sob
uncontrollably. My mother was already awake as she realized
I was crying in my sleep. Honey, it's a bad dream, it's a
bad dream don't cry. I said, "No, no it's not, Mister is
dead, Mister is dead." My mother got me to go back to
sleep by promising she would take me to visit Mister in the
morning.
As soon as it was light, I was anxious to see Mister, and
mom true to her word took me to Mister's store as soon as
we finished breakfast. We walked into the store and found
everyone crying, Mister had died of a heart attack that
very night. I knew that horrible evil spider had killed
him, and if he had not gotten in the way it would have
killed my mom instead. Now I believe that spider actually
represented death, and that it had come for my mother, but
Mister saved her life by giving his.
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