朝、目が覚めたら、天井に一匹のクモが這っていた。 小さな黒いクモで、じっとして動かない。実は昨日もあのクモは天井にいたのであった。白い天井だから黒い点はよくめだつ。位置はもう少し離れた足の方の角にいた。今は目の前にいる。ということは、一日であんなにわずかの距離しか動かなかったのだろうか。まさかそんなことはあるまい。見ているとクモはじりじりと進んでいく。頭の向きがわからないのではっきりしないが、おそらく前へ向かって進んでいるのだろう。少し飛び跳ねるようなしぐさもしながら進んでいく。そして時々止まってじっとしている。 もともとクモは好きでも嫌いでもない。よく見ると形がちょっと怖いのであまり好きではなかったが、クモは害虫を捕ってくれるから殺してはだめだよと夫に言われて、以来、家のなかにクモが歩いていても、よろしくねという気持ちでほうっておく。 天井の四辺に沿って、歩くなんて几帳面なクモだなと思う。おそらく彼は一日中えさを探してパトロールしているのだろう。そして夜になると、あの天井の四辺のいちばん暗い、箪笥の上にものが置いてある隅にするすると帰っていくと思われた。 それにしても、ああして逆さになって天井に張りついているなんて器用なことだ。足にツメはついているのだろうが、なぜ落っこちないのだろう。さらにクモといえば糸だが、なぜあのようにか細い糸で重い体を支えられるのだろう。夫はあの糸は人間でいうと直径２㎝のロープ並みに強度のある糸で、クライマーがセルフビレイ（安全確保）しながら登っているようなものだと解説する。だからもし足を踏み外しても、びよーんとぶら下がるだけで、なんの危険もない。お腹のなかには３つほどのロープバッグがあって、そこから状況に応じて適したロープならぬ糸を繰り出すらしい。至極便利なお腹である。 さてクモはこれから頭の上の角まで行くのだろうと思っていたら、突然また来た道を戻り始めた。それも大変な急ぎ足で戻っていく。獲物がいたのだろうか。人間には見えないがクモには見えるものがあるのだ。しかし彼は途中まで戻って、また止まってじっとした。 休日とはいえ、こうして日がな一日クモの動きを見ているわけにもいかない。私は起き上がって台所へお湯を沸かしに行った。 昼すぎになって、少し横になると、今度はガラス窓にクモがいる。さっき窓に蚊がいたのでばんとやっつけて、やったと思っていたのだが、彼は蚊を見つけて急いでここまで歩いてきたのかもしれない。横になったまま見ていると、クモは前足をゆっくりと動かしたかと思うと、突然シャカシャカシャカと口の中に入れたりする。夫はお腹減ったなあと指でもなめてるんだろうと言う。わるいことをした。えさでもあげたい気分だが、食べものの好みが違うからどうしようもない。それにクモにはクモの生活がある。 夜になってカーテンを閉めようとしたら、裾の方にクモがいて、こんなところにまで遠征していたのかとおかしくなった。彼のなわばりはどうやらこの一室で、こうして一日中私たちが知らないうちにあちこちを歩き回っているのだろう。 カーテンは閉めずにそのままにして、しばらくして戻ったら、もういなくなっていた。今日は寝床に帰ったのかもしれない。 When I woke up in the morning, a spider was crawling on the ceiling. It was a small, black, motionless spider. It was actually on the roof the day before. The ceiling is white, so black spots stand out easily. It was located in the corner, a little distance from my foot. Now it was before my eyes. Could that mean that it only moves such a short distance in one day? But that's impossible. I watched as it edged along. It didn't know what direction it was heading, so it wasn't very steady. Perhaps it was moving forward. It moved along while bouncing up and down. Then it would stop from time to time. I never really hated nor liked spiders. If I looked closely at them, their shape frightened me a bit, so I didn't like them very much, but my husband told me that we shouldn't kill spiders because they capture harmful bugs, so ever since then whenever a spider is walking around my house, I let it be to do its work. I'd thought he was a scrupulous spider because it walked across all four walls of the ceiling. Perhaps he was on patrol all day, searching for bugs. Then when night came, he would nimbly return to the corner on top of the tansu, the darkest corner of the ceiling. At any rate, he was dexterous to cling to the wall like that. He probably has claws on his feet, but how come he doesn't fall down? Spiders spin webs, but how could they support their heavy bodies on a thin web like that? My husband explained to me that in human terms, the webs are equal in strength to a rope of 2cm in diameter and are like the self belay that climbers use while climbing. That's why if they slip, they just slip down, and there's no danger of any kind. Spiders have about 3 rope bags in their stomachs and use the appropriate rope-like web to respond to the situation. What an enormously useful stomach! Just when I thought he would go to the corner above my head, he suddenly started turning back on the path he came very nimbly. Maybe he had some prey. There are things that humans can't see that spiders can see. However, he only went back half way and stopped again. Although it was my day off, I knew I mustn't spend all day like this, watching the spider's movements. I got up and went to the kitchen to boil water. In the early afternoon when I lied down, the spider was on the glass window this time. There was a mosquito on the window earlier, so maybe he discovered it, ran to the window, took it out and was thinking he had hit the jackpot. While I watched him as I lied down, it looked like he was slowly moving his forefeet, but suddenly he briskly shoved them into his mouth. My husband pointed out that he's probably licking his fingers, thinking he's hungry. We'd done something bad. I wanted to feed him, but our taste in food was different, so I couldn't help him. Moreover, spiders have their own lifestyle. When I was about to close the curtains that night, the spider was on the hem of the curtains. It was funny that he had voyaged even there. His territory was clearly this room, and he probably walked all over it the whole day without us knowing. I left the curtains without closing them, and when I returned a little while later, he was gone. Maybe he had gone off to bed for the day.