When I was a boy, growing up in Tennessee, I had a friend, Julie, whose father owned some property on the edge of town. On that property, in a very old, very large barn, she told me they used to keep horses.

I can remember that I was infatuated with Julie. We were about twelve, or maybe thirteen, and she was my first true love. I would have done anything for her, anything she had asked. I hadn't known her long, but I would have done anything.

Not long after I met and subsequently fell in love with her, she decided that we needed to have a picnic out at her father's property, specifically in the barn. Not really caring where we went, since it was with her, I agreed.

For some reason, then in my life, I had developed an incredibly intense fear of spiders. I don't know why, I would just go into orbit if confronted by an eight legged creature. One morning, in the bathroom, I was cornered by a big, ugly, hairy monster of a spider that was unbelievably hard to kill. It took several hard whacks with a ball peen hammer to insure its demise.

Being a city boy I didn't have to worry much about running into spiders. I avoided where they hung out at my house, and in the park, and I never saw them on the playground, so I stayed pretty insulated from the damnable bugs. I even avoided the fruit aisles at the supermarket because I had heard of a twelve inch, carnivorous tarantula that had stowed away in a banana shipment. I was safe.

The day Julie took me to the barn, I was blind to everything but her beauty. For a twelve year old, she was a knockout. Anyone would have been proud to have her on his arm. I can't remember what color her eyes were, but they were deep. We didn't talk too much, I mean I didn't, she talked mostly because I spent most of my time looking at her.

I do remember that it was a very pretty spring day. The sky was dotted with fluffy, cottony clouds against a rich blue background. The dogwoods were blooming everywhere, and the scent of honeysuckle was almost overpowering. In the background, had I cared enough to listen, I'm sure that I would have noticed the constant buzzing of flying insects, and the chirping of birds.

Not only was I blind, I was deaf. I don't even know what she was saying. All I could see was her, and all I could hear was the pounding of my pulse in my ears. The pasture we crossed gave way to a partially fenced area with a large building; the barn. I scarcely noticed. She decided where to spread the quilt we had brought, I spread the quilt, and placed the picnic basket on one corner.

She sat and patted the quilt beside her, indicating where I was to sit. Not only was I beside her, I was beside myself. Now I could not only see her, I could faintly smell her. The scent of Crest and Ivory Soap still command an exotic interest to me to this day.

After staring dumbly at her for an undeterminate period, she drew me closer and kissed me. My brain stopped. I was incapable of motion, thought, or reason. I started to fall back onto the quilt, when I noticed the rafters in the ceiling. I froze. Between the large boards, was at least four or five, large, active spider webs.

I looked around my surroundings for the first time. In the old horse stalls, the window openings, the loft, everywhere were spiders. The flies, mosquitoes, moths, wasps, and bumblebees were making a fine killing ground for hundreds of spiders.

I glanced down at Julie. My lust had died completely. My brain demanded immediate exit from the barn, my body refused to move in any direction. Julie, not recognizing my fear, thought I was being coy. Far from it. I was petrified. She reached for my arm and pulled me toward her.

It was enough to pull me off balance, and I started falling toward her. Just before I would have landed on her, a Daddy Long Legs scampered across her hair that was, much like she was, spread upon the quilt. It was too much.

Somehow, my body levitated to a vertical position without touching a thing. I have no idea how, but my feet began moving me out of the barn. In a third of the time it took me to get to the barn, I was home, safe, locked in my room, away from the dreaded spiders. Unfortunately, I was also away from Julie. Which is also how it remained for the duration of the summer.

When we got back to school, she started telling her friends about how she had scared the life out of me, so I got back at her by putting a salamander down her shirt. She got real angry with me, especially when I squashed it. After that, she never even recognized my existence.

Today, when I come across a spider, I still launch into a little fit of fury, and kill it, but not for the same reasons. I learned quite a bit about spiders since then, and most of them don't worry me. I still kill them, though, not because I'm afraid, and not so much for scaring me away from Julie, but I really missed that salamander.

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