Arachnephobic

Everyone has an Achille's heel--I hate clowns and creepy little kids in scary movies, for Brent, it's spiders (he was traumatized as a kid). Ironically, he knows a lot about them--I guess it's good to know your enemy. He once told me that one of worst spiders, in his opinion, was the cane spider, also known as the wolf spider because they're known to be fast, they bite and they will jump.
So imagine this--last week Friday, after our lovely dinner with his family, Brent and I were hanging out with my family, watching TV when we hear my mom ask uncertainly, "is this a toy? Did someone leave a toy here?"
I walk in to the kitchen to see what she's talking about only to find see my mother reaching out tentatively towards a huge spider. As in THE wolf spider. And by the looks of it, I would guess it was a female with her egg sack on her back *shiver*
I screamed and pulled her away.
I finally ask Junior to "please kill this thing before I start swearing."
He came in to the kitchen followed by Brent. Luckily for Brent, I stopped him from coming in but not before he saw the spider. He ran away and jumped on a chair and did not move until he saw for himself that the spider was dead by the collaborative efforts of my mom and Junior which was quite an adventure in
itself. My mom was armed with a can of cleaning spray while Junior armed himself with a rolled up magazine. Brent, our fearful arachneologist, nervously advised against my mom spraying the spider--"it's really fast and will probably run away." did she listen? Of course not.
So she sprayed.
And it ran.
And she sprayed again. And now junior throws a firm thwack! and the spider falls behind the trash bins. My mom valiantly pushes aside the bins and creeps over to see I the spider is still alive. It is. It's on it's back now, spindle-y legs in the air and struggling. Somewhere behind me Brent squeaks in disgust and panic. My mom goes for the kill. She sprays and sprays and until her point is proven and still she keeps spraying the now dead spider. Junior grabs a paper towel and unceremoniously picks up the hideous mangled insect and shows it around to his audience. We stare in awe and then, just to be sure, takes it to the bathroom and flushes it down the toilet.
The parents saved the day and Brent finally descended from his tower of safety.