Chapter 14
The sun rose with power the next morning spilling rays of prickling heat into Brass's bedroom. He winced as the bedroom door came open with a slam. Jared had too much energy on a Sunday morning. "Uncle Jim! Uncle Jim!" he screeched as he jumped on the bed. "The mare had a boy…and Dad caught a spider!" The words came out so quick and crushed together that it took Brass a few seconds to decipher them.
"I understand the mare part, but what do you mean about the spider?" Brass said sitting up in bed.
"Come downstairs..it's time for breakfast" Jared said running from the room grabbing the door frame on his way out, using it as a catapult. "Umph" Jim said aloud, stepping onto the wooded floor.
Brass turned the corner to the kitchen a saw the three of them sitting at the table. "So what's this I hear about babies and spiders?" he said pulling a coffee cup out of the cabinet. Grissom produced the jar with the spider hiding under bits of moldy hay. "Jared told me last night about Sara's spider bite." Sara stood to pour more coffee, "and the mare foaled, she did well, the vet's on the way to check them out."
Grissom unfolded his glasses and placed them carefully on his face. Looking at the spider he began, "the Loxosceles arizonica, very rarely do their bites cause more than a skin irritant when anti-venom is given within 24-48 hours. Sara tells me that the Doctors have run tests and that there seemed to be something different about the little guys that live out here with her." Grissom diluted his wording because Jared was listening and he knew he would be questioned, in detail, if he went any further.
Sara nudged Jared, "Go out to the barn and check on the mare for me, would you please?"
"Aw Mom….do I have to?" he wined.
"Yes sir, you have to." she smiled.
"Okay….." Jared lowered his head and raced out the back door allowing it to slam shut.
Brass took the opportunity of the adult time to ask Grissom what the plan was with the spider.
"I believe that there is something this little guy can tell us about Sara's illness. You see, there are few plausible evolutionary scenarios that could cause the toxin that this spider carries, to attack Sara's immune system. I need to analyze the venom he carries and the things he has digested to determine if the environment he lives in created some kind of bacterial activity" Grissom recited. "Only then, can I begin to develop….." Grissom stopped there.
"An anti-venom?" Sara said. "You're thinking you can develop an anti-venom? But the doctors already had this discussion; they brought in specialists and could not find anything that would work."
Grissom set the jar down on the table. He gave a slight grin, "but did they talk to an entomologist?"
