Janet paced in front of her computer before refreshing the screen.
Your package is in transit. Click [here] to see its status.
She’d been eagerly tracking its progress all afternoon, but the truck delivering it had been parked in front of a large apartment complex for the last fifteen minutes.
The tremor in her left hand grew more intense.
She turned to the TV.
The anchor was spouting off about a new type of spider that the Unified European Troops had developed and released in Eastern Spain.
“The venom of P9-16 is nondeadly, but a single bite can paralyze a dozen men. It has no natural predators in the region and releases up to three hundred offspring in a single clutch. Military strategists believe that the entire conflict zone will be under control in just two years, after which a new spider will be developed to consume-“
She turned back to her computer, and her heart leapt as she saw the delivery truck was once more on the move.
An advertisement popped up. ‘Strong as steel, smooth as skin. Why settle for mere cotton? Premium Satyr Silk, woven from ten-thousand seamstresses.’ A small Satyr spider with abdomen colors resembling a smiling face dangled elegantly from a thread. The logo ‘Satyr Silk’ appeared above it.
The ad ended, and the progress screen returned.
The truck was now about ten minutes away.
To calm her nerves, Janet took a deep breath and walked outside. Tall, thin boxes filled her yard, each only about two feet wide but all of them towering well over her head. Their semitransparent Plexiglas exteriors revealed the complex network of spiders’ webs and insect nests within. The insects simply existed to feed the spiders, and the spiders themselves produced everything from meat-substitutes to bundt-balls to cheeses, depending on their genome.
A lump of appetizing-looking mozzarella rested atop a pile of dry leaves in the box nearest her. She opened the door and withdrew the prize, inspected it, wiped the soil off, and took a large bite.
Smooth as silk, and oh so creamy and cheesy and tasty.
Snack in hand, she passed by her garden and unlocked her shed, which also contained a garden of sorts, but it wasn’t the type she’d readily admit to owning… Especially if the law was involved. The boxes hidden inside were far smaller, as they didn’t need to harbor a complex environment of insects and spiders. Rather, the spiders themselves, and not their products, were the prize.
Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, ayahuasca… A single bite was all it took to flood a person’s system with a blast of whichever drug they wished. Based on her clientele, Janet suspected her ‘secret garden’ was one of the best in the city.
She opened the box containing LSD spiders and carefully scared a couple into a tiny plastic tube. She placed a cloth over the end and bound it in place with a rubber band, then closed and secured the box’s lid. She left the shed, locked it, and headed back into the kitchen, casting a glance once more toward the computer screen. The truck was two minutes away.
She headed to the front porch and waited. A large truck with the label ‘Pharma-Go’ pulled into her driveway. A tremor ran up her hand in excitement. She smiled.
“About time!” She called to the driver.
The driver smiled. He opened the side door, revealing a wall of plastic containers. Antidepressant spiders, anti-anxiety spiders, spiders capable of treating headaches, dulling pain, curing seasickness… There was even a small section containing pills, for those who still took them.
She walked up to the driver and watched as he withdrew one of the containers. He read the name.
“Janet Dallas? Can you confirm your date of birth?”
Janet rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an ass, Dillon.”
The driver gave her a crooked-toothed smile. As he handed Janet her prescription, she noticed his swollen, scab-covered hand.
“Dillon?” She asked threateningly.
He noticed her staring down at his hand, and quickly withdrew it. A look of shame fell over him.
“It was only a few times.” He said. “At a party. Someone was passing around a vase. They said it was filled with weedlings, but, well…”
“Bullshit.” She said. “You’re back on the stuff again, aren’t you? It was Methlings, wasn’t it?”
“I swear it was just a one-time thing.” He said. “From here on out I’m going straight.”
She shook her head. She wanted to chastise him for his habits, but it’d seem a bit hypocritical given the fact she’d spent the last half hour actively following the delivery truck’s route and fighting tremors.
She withdrew the spiders she’d taken from her shed and covertly passed them to him. He happily took them and placed them in a pocket on the inside of his lab-coat-looking uniform.
“Just be careful, yeah?” Janet asked. “Their bites will tear up your DNA.”
He nodded. “I’m not a weekday spider-user, and I’ve only ever indulged at parties.”
She watched as Dillon closed the truck’s side-door and climbed back into the driver’s seat. He backed out of the driveway and gave several honks before waving.
She waved back.
He drove away.
Finally alone, Janet opened the container she’d just received and stuck a finger inside. A few mild bites signaled to her that her withdraw symptoms would be quelled for another few days. Within minutes she felt her racing mind beginning to slow and her anxiousness begin to disintegrate.
She breathed a sigh of relief, then headed back inside. She inspected the container, watching the tiny yellow spiders within scuttling over their web.
“Wish you buggers weren’t bred to be sterile.” She said. She thought of all the money she could save if prescriptive pharmaceutical spiders were capable of being bred.
She returned to the kitchen, slunk into a seat, and turned back to the television. She flipped channels, skipping from a child’s program with spider puppets to a garden show discussing this autumn’s most exciting new breeds of spiders. She settled on a romance movie featuring an industrial spider farmer and his geneticist.
“You want me to create a species capable of spinning cotton candy? You’re crazy!”
The shirtless farmer swept the scientist into his arms. “Is it crazy to fall in love with you?”
Janet slumped back into her chair as a wave of relief fell over her. She weakly lifted the mozzarella to her lips and took another bite. She felt completely at ease.