SPINNER
Stripes sat in the center of his web and watched Kateri looking at small books and stacks of paper she called print-outs. He didn’t know what the books or print-outs were for, but he knew they were very important to Kateri.
Kateri was very important to Stripes. She gave him a big glass home so that he could spin his huge orb-weaver web, she brought him delicious insects to catch and she didn’t try to pick him up or pet him. In Stripes opinion, Kateri was a very good human, so, in his spider way, he loved her.
But he could tell something was wrong.
Kateri picked up a stack of paper and put it down. Then she wiped her hand across her eyes, picked up another stack and put that one down, too. Stripes was used to watching her look at her stacks and small books, but she usually took a long time. And what was wrong with her eyes? And why was she curling up on her sleeping-place? Why was her whole body shaking? Was she dying? She couldn’t be! One of his friends from the garden told him that humans lived practically forever, and he knew Kateri was young.
There was a knock on Kateri’s bedroom door. Kateri sat up and wiped her eyes with soft paper from a brightly-colored box. “Come in,” she said.
Kateri’s friend Courtney came in and stopped inside the door. “What’s the matter, Kat?” she asked. “You sounded awful on the phone.”
Kateri sniffed. “Thanks for coming. I had to talk to someone and talking to Mom or Dad would just make them feel worse.”
Courtney sat next to her. “Okay, I’m here. Now, what was so bad you couldn’t tell me on the phone?”
Kateri held up one of her little books and let it drop. “I can’t do it. If I get a student loan, maybe I can go to a community college, but all the years it takes to become a veterinarian, all the money…”
“But you’ve wanted to be a vet your whole life! You were talking about it in kindergarten!”
“Mom told me today. The company Dad works for is going out of business. He’ll look for another job, but Mom said we’ll have to be very careful. She suggested I “rethink my goals”.
“That’s awful!”
“It’s not Mom’s fault. She was trying to hide it, but I think she’s scared.”
Courtney handed Kateri another piece of soft paper from the pretty box. “Maybe you can win a scholarship. Your grades are way up there!”
“I don’t know.” She swept a hand over her papers. “Some of these are about scholarships, but now it all seems so….”
Stripes stretched his long legs and circled his web. There had to be something he could do. Kateri was giving up her dream. She had a dream thing on the wall over her sleeping place, didn’t she? Would that help? It looked like a spider web, so maybe his magic would work on it.
He concentrated. The dream thing wobbled; wobbled harder and fell down onto a pillow.
“Did you see that?” Courtney asked. “That was weird! Your dreamcatcher just jumped off the wall all by itself!”
Kateri picked it up carefully. “Hanger probably broke. My grandfather gave me this when I was born. Ojibwe legend says that they protect babies.” She tried to smile and hung the fragile willow-framed net back on the wall. “I guess they don’t work when you’re in high school.”
Courtney was still looking uneasily at the dreamcatcher. “You’ll figure something out, Kat. You’re so smart. I, uh, I have to go home and finish an English project. See you tomorrow.”
Stripes and Kateri both watched Courtney practically run from the room.
But Stripes forgot about Courtney right away. Kateri was wiping her eyes again, but she turned to Stripes. “What do you think, little guy? No more Dr. Kateri dreams?” She picked up all of her paper things and put them in a box. “Guess I don’t need these anymore.”
In a little while, Kateri was ready to pull a blanket over herself. “Good night, Stripes,” she said, and turned off the light next to her sleeping place.
In the dark, Stripes thought for a long time. He wasn’t sure if he could do it, but he had to try.
Like all spiders, Stripes spun his everyday web from special spinners at the back of his body, but this wasn’t going to be an everyday web.
He concentrated again. This would be much harder than making something fall off of a wall. He imagined a web, the biggest web he had ever spun, a web made of light and the magic of hope. It floated away from him.
It settled over Kateri. It was so weightless she would never know it was there, but it would stay with her just like her grandfather’s dreamcatcher.
But this net wouldn’t keep bad things away.
This net would keep good things in.
The next morning, Stripes was very tired, but he was awake in time to see Kateri get up.
“Good morning, Stripes!” she said. “I had a strange dream. It was strange and wonderful. I can’t quite remember it, but you were in it.”
She bent down so her nose was close to his home. Stripes could see a tiny glow of magic around her. “And you know what? Courtney was right! I’m going to find a way! I’m going to be a vet! I am!” She tapped the glass softly. “And after school, I’m going to bring you two flies.”
Stripes went back to the corner of his web to rest. Two flies! THAT was worth dreaming about!
The name Kateri is a girl’s name of Native American origin meaning “pure”.
St. Kateri Teckakwitha is the first Native American saint, canonized in 2012.