Jack was starving and ate an entire steak and baked potato and serving of salad, followed by a dessert of Abigail's peach cobbler, which she'd made the day before. Afterwards, Abigail ran the hot bath she'd promised and stayed in the bathroom with her husband to help him wash his back. She washed other parts of him too, of course, and was scrubbing between his toes when she noticed the small red welt near his ankle. She gasped when she saw the two tiny pricks at the center of the wound.

"My God! What's that?" she asked.

"I don't know. Something must have bitten me when I was in the attic. I didn't even feel it."

"Don't let me forget to put some medicine on it after your bath."

"I've got other ideas for what to do after my bath." He winked at her, and she burst out laughing.

Much later, they got Sharon and the children settled for the night, and Jack grinned at his wife. "Ready to implement my plans?" Hand in hand they went into the bedroom, where they slowly undressed one another and then tumbled onto the bed together. They made sweet love and fell asleep in one another's arms.

Abigail awakened in the middle of the night to hear her husband groaning. "Jack? My God, what's wrong?" She switched the bedside lamp on to see that he was shivering, and sweat was pouring down his face.

"Get me to a hospital," he said through gritted teeth.

Quickly Abigail called Joanie. "Hello?" She heard the alarm in the other woman's voice as she answered the telephone.

"Joanie? I'm so sorry to bother you at this hour, but Jack's really sick and I'm gonna have to take him to the emergency room. Could you please come over and watch Sharon and the kids?"

"Sure, hon, don't even worry about it! I'll be there just as soon as I can!"

While waiting for her friend to arrive, Abigail looked at Jack's leg and saw that the redness from the bite mark now encompassed a much larger area.

"You're an angel!" she exclaimed when Joanie arrived a few minutes later. She helped her husband to the car and raced to the emergency room. By the time they'd reached the parking lot, Jack was delirious, and Abigail was wishing she'd called an ambulance, as she wasn't at all sure that she'd be able to get him into the hospital by herself.

Somehow they made it, and a stretcher was immediately brought for Jack. Abigail was left to sit in the waiting room, wondering whether she'd ever see her husband alive again. All notion of sleep had long ago vanished from her mind as she sat staring at the white wall. The stack of magazines scattered on the coffee table failed to tempt her, as she knew she'd never be able to concentrate on any of the stories in them, anyway.

So was this how it was all to end? Her mind drifted back to the long-ago day when she'd first met Jack. It had been the first day of cheer leading practice of her senior year of high school, and she'd been sitting in the locker room with the others when an impossibly young, dark-haired man had entered the room.

"I'm Mr. Parrish, and I'm going to be your cheer leading coach this year," he'd told them. "Let's make it the best year ever!"

Everyone had cheered. If Abigail hadn't been so smitten with David at the time, she might have even noticed how good-looking he was.

"Mrs. Parrish?" The emergency room physician's voice brought her out of her reverie.

She jumped. "Yes?"

"Your husband is comfortable, and his vitals are stable," the physician told her. She sagged with relief. "We've determined that he was bitten by a brown recluse spider. We're giving him medication through an IV, and we're going to keep him here several days for observation. Do you have any idea where he might have encountered one of these creatures?"

"He spent a lot of time in the attic of his mother's house yesterday, looking for some paperwork. So will he be OK, then?"

"I don't foresee any long-term complications." The physician smiled.

"Thank God! When can I see him?"

"Why, any time you want, although I believe he's asleep right now."

Abigail entered the room to see her husband lying in bed with his leg bandaged and elevated. She took a seat in the chair beside the bed to wait for him to awaken.