By Amy Logan
Sam had to hide his Halloween stash. The tiny Tootsie Rolls, chewy taffy, rainbow tinted chocolate candies, all had to go into hiding. His sister Anne was relentless, after eating her candy she would go on a mission to find his. In a week hers would all be gone. So his candy was in danger.
The hiding place would have to be clever, unusual, private yet accessible. He finally decided on a plastic pencil box that he had left over from school. In a bottom desk drawer, it would be safe. And it was, sort of.
After eating all of his favorites the candy stash had been forgotten. The holidays came and went, and the desk drawer was ignored until the school year was to begin. He didn’t give it much thought until he had to clean out his desk. And he found the pencil box was empty. The candy was gone. Sam wanted to confront sister Anne, but the statute of limitations for the theft of last fall’s Halloween candy was definitely over.
Part of room cleaning was also cleaning under the bed. Scooping out single socks, and soccer balls, out of the corner of his eye Sam thought he saw something move. Move. Then he saw it. A licorice whip tentacle, no a leg, scuttled under a crumpled book report. He didn’t know what to do. Run? Call for help? He was too horrified and curious to do either. He grabbed his baseball bat and a flashlight. On his stomach on the floor facing the bed, he gingerly moved the paper with the bat. With the flashlight he could get a full view of what was going on. He wished he hadn’t. The giant purple jawbreaker spider had 8 black spaghetti thin legs. It was big. It was scary. And it was alive. It scurried back into the corner taking a defensive posture. Clusters of tiny robin egg malt balls were planted in the corners of the legs of the bed, promises of future candy creatures to come. And in the corner closest to him, his flashlight, and his nightmares, was a cotton candy web and encapsulated in pink candy floss, in the center, the tragic figure of an orange gummy bear.
He panicked and scooted out away from the bed as quickly as humanly possible. He flicked off the flashlight and sat paralysed, his mind trying to comprehend what he had just seen. Living candy? Under his bed? He didn’t know how it got there but he knew one thing. It couldn’t stay there. He would never be able to sleep again knowing what was going on under his bed. And he had to deal with it soon, there was no telling when those robin eggs were going to hatch.
So. Options. Broom? Too scary, not lethal enough. Vacuum? Nozzle too small. Trap? Yes, that was it. It would have to be trapped alive, to make sure that it was really gone. So he needed bait. And a trap. And a plan.
So if the gummy bear was any evidence, the thing ate candy. Gummy bear-like candy. Easy to get, easy to handle. Now the trap. Think like a spider. An intelligent jawbreaker spaghetti licorice legged spider. Where would you go to find candy? Somewhere dark, somewhere safe. The trap had to be attractive, yet lightweight and portable so it could be placed under the bed and removed easily. Got it. Can you say piñata?
So from here he had several options. He could make a piñata, he had seen sister do it. But it would take time. Lots of time. Time to cut, layer, goop and dry. Overnight. Maybe several overnights. And while it was drying the malty eggs under his bed may be crackling open, and if they’re anything like real spider eggs each speckled orb could release thousands of candy creatures. He couldn’t afford to wait. Hello piggy bank.
So off to the store. He chose a traditional donkey shaped model. Since he was not sure what the cultural sensibilities were of the enemy he thought the more traditional route to be the safest. Once home he modified the opening of the piñata so it was BIG. It had to be at least 4” in diameter so Spidey (he named it for ease of reference) could easily get through. So the plan was: 1. Bait with gummy bears. 2. Place under bed. 3. Watch and wait. 4. Plug the holes. With what? He decided an old t-shirt would work fine. 5. Find courage. And not just any old courage. This was the big time. Lying on the floor on your stomach next to your bed with a flashlight in the dark waiting for a giant jawbreaker spider to climb into a pinata so you could plug the hole with your t-shirt kind of courage.
So that night he carefully slid the piñata into position under the foot of his bed. Opening angled toward the side where he waited. And waited. It was hard to see exactly what was going on under the rest of the bed as he had not disturbed his belongings, aka Spidey’s habitat. But he could see the trap. He got sore lying on his stomach. He shifted positions several times, stomach, right side, stomach left side, never talking his eyes off of the piñata. He had the t-shirt at hand. He was ready. And then he saw it. A licorice legged scuttling spider approached the piñata. Sam held his breath. Spidey entered.
Sam counted to five then with t-shirt in hand shoved it into the opening of the piñata, trapping Spidey inside. He had him. He had won.
He was exhilarated. And tired. He would take care of the eggs tomorrow. He put the whole piñata into a sturdy paper bag then into a large plastic tub with tight lid. It didn’t have to stay there long. Sister Anne was having a birthday.
About the Author
Amy Logan
Amy Logan's first work was published on October 29, 1970. It has been a bit of a dry spell since, so she is very excited to have the opportunity to contribute to AntipodeanSF.
She is a lifelong fan of speculative fiction and the short story and has returned to writing the weird tales that she loves.
She lives in Eastern Washington state, not far from the Canadian border with her human family as well as 2 cats, 1 dog, and a llama.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
Timothy Dwyer is an American science-fiction writer living in New Zealand.
Haneko Takayama is an award-winning Japanese writer. In 2009, her short story “Udon, Kitsune tsuki no” was a runner-up for the Sogen SF Short Story Award. 
Kerrie Noor was born in Melbourne Australia in 1960 but has spent most of her adult life in Scotland.
Keech has been writing fiction and poetry for 40 years, and is currently working on a speculative novel of the Afterlife, focusing on Victorian literature, though it is technically set in the near future.
Bruce is an older Australian, living in Adelaide, who enjoys reading and writing, especially short stories and flash fiction.
Myna Chang writes flash and short stories in a variety of genres.
Umiyuri Katsuyama is a multiple-award-winning writer of fantasy and horror, often based on Asian folklore motifs.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Although a writer of the baby boom persuasion, Ed has not boomed for quite a while.
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
Geraldine Borella writes adult short stories and stories for children and has been published in anthologies for both. In 2018, one of her children’s short stories placed second in The Buzz Words Short Story Prize and she won an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship. She currently works part-time as a hospital pharmacist and as an online creative writing tutor.
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
Tim Borella has never lost his childhood passion for SF and writing in general and has been lucky enough to have worked most of his life as a pilot — in other words, he’s never properly grown up.
