The Story of the Spider

(A living room in the mountains.  Late evening.  MOTHER sits on a sofa, hair mussed, two sleepy babies in her arms.  She looks tired.)

     DAUGHTER
          (Little girl voice, interested but not scared, coming from stage right.)
Mommy!  Come see the spider!

     MOTHER
          (Stirs, looks, sighs.)
Hmm?

     DAUGHTER
It's crawling.  Mommy, the spider is crawling!

     FATHER
          (Enters stage left, looks at MOTHER tenderly, crosses stage in long strides, exits stage right.  We hear loud STOMP!  Enters stage right, walk toward MOTHER.)

      DAUGHTER
          (quietly)
I guess the spider won't crawl any more.

     FATHER
          (Starts to laugh uncontrollably, slowly exits stage left, still shaking with laughter.)


          (Curtain)