By Rhea J. Côté Robbins

 Spider Super Highway  was the tiniest spider in the meadow and he was bright, orange red.  He lived alone in the large, ancient oak tree  that stood in the middle of the meadow; the tiniest spider had the biggest house.  Super Highway  was never lonely because close by in the tall grasses lived millions of other spiders with millions of pairs of eyes  peeping out at you.  Each spider lived in a different home in the grass, in the ground, or in the plants and flowers growing in the meadow. 

 Spider Super Highway  was an independent little spider who loved to travel the countryside in search of adventure.  He wove his web with great speed and daring.  That's how he got his name.  He created spider line where spider line had never gone before. "There goes Super Highway ," all the other spiders would say.
 "How brave!" 
 "How daring!"
 Super Highway  was weaving a web from one blade of grass to another creating a fast lane around the meadow.
 "How ingenious!"
 Super Highway  knew how to get around and he knew how to get home too!  Even at night.  Super Highway  would follow by moonlight  the web he had woven in the sunlight. 
 Super Highway  knew how to fly.  He would weave a length of web, toss it to the wind and "balloon" away!  Because he was so small he would often fly around in search of new places to see. 
 Super Highway  saw many things when he "ballooned."  He often saw Long Legs  way below him.  When he flew, Super Highway  felt as if he were very big. 
 Spider Super Highway  also spoke fourteen different languages including fluent Bug. 

 A spider's world looks very different.  Spiders call humans "Long Legs"  because they seem so tall and far away--even tiny humans.  Long Legs  move, but do not take their houses with them.  Or weave new ones like a spider.  They build houses out of sticks or rocks.
  "Humans have four crawlers or legs, but use only two to move around and save the other two for holding or carrying things." 
 "How clever of the Long Legs ," some spiders say. 
 "Some Long Legs  are even afraid of spiders."  Spider Super Highway  thinks that is a very good joke. 
 "Anyone the size of Long Legs  shouldn't be afraid of a little, itty, bitty spider, but they are."  Spider holds his fat middle and rolls into a ball  and laughs when a Long Leg  screams in fright at the sight of a spider. 
 "Spiders work very hard to spin webs and catch bothersome bugs."
 "Long Legs  always ruin the spiders' webs that catch the bothersome bugs." 
 "Why do they do that?" Super Highway  thinks to himself.  "Why do Long Legs  tear down the beautiful webs that catch the bothersome bugs?  Why are Long Legs  afraid of us and hate spiders so much?" 
 One day in the meadow a meeting of all the spiders was called to order.  The Spider Conclave had a mission for Super Highway  to perform. 

 "We called a meeting here today," the Spider Grand Master said, "because of your bravery we thought you could find the answer for all spiders to the Unanswerable Question."
 "Super Highway  will find the answer to the Unanswerable Question!" millions of spiders chant as they knock legs on the ground in encouragement and appreciation.  The Unanswerable Question has been unanswered for millions of spider years; they all knew the question, but none of them knew the answer. 

"Why do spiders scare Long Legs  soooooooooo much?" the spiders yell in unison! 

 Spider Super Highway  is determined to find out why spiders scare Long Legs  so much.  So he decided to go on a long journey deep into the land to see for himself why spiders' webs have been broken and torn and why spiders are hated by Long Legs . 
 He set off on his journey the very next morning.  Taking with him his trusty web weaver and nothing else.  After all a spider has to eat doesn't he?
 Spider Super Highway  first met up with another country spider who spoke only Leaf Web Spinner and asked the question of him :
 "Why are spiders so frightening to Long Legs?" 
 "Because we have eight legs that are creepy and crawly," replied the country spider.
 "Because we have eight legs that are creepy and crawly?" Spider Super Highway  repeated, unbelievably.
 "That's right," replied the country spider and walked away to his web.
 Further on Spider Super Highway  met another spider who spoke Onionese.  This spider lived among the scallions and onions in a garden. 
 "Why are spiders so frightening to  Long Legs?" asked Spider Super Highway  of the Onionese Spider.
 "Because we catch bothersome bugs in our webs," replied she.
 "Because we catch bothersome bugs in our webs?"  Spider Super Highway  was very puzzled and much perplexed.  He scratched his belly with one of his eight legs. 
 As his journey continued the next spider he met was a city dweller.  This spider had on some very fashionable webbings and expressive odors.  Maybe this agreeable spider was friend to the Long Legs.
 Spider Super Highway  introduced himself and asked the city dweller spider the same question he asked the country spiders.
 "Why are spiders so frightening to  Long Legs?"
 "Mostly because we build beautiful webs," the city dweller said. 
 Spider Super Highway  was more confused than ever. Long Legs  feared and hated spiders because spiders had eight creepy, crawly legs, or because spiders caught bothersome bugs in their beautiful webs?  Long Legs  were not that easy to understand. 
 Spider Super Highway  wove himself a web to sit on, catch his dinner and think.  Why, for instance, did Long Legs  just walk on two of their legs and not all four?  Why do they save two legs just to carry things, or wave at one another?  Why did Long Legs  make so much noise yelling at spiders when spiders could very well converse in Long Leg if some Long Leg  took the time to teach a spider their language.  And why did Long Legs  live in those houses  not made of web?

 Long Legs  did not make much sense to him.
 

 Spider Super Highway  had his lunch and went home.
 
 

The End
1989