Milton the Mighty by Emma Read

Author:Emma Read
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicken House

Professor Parker took Zoe and her dad on a tour of Bug World and Milton crept out into the open. It was like spider city, with glass cases and plastic boxes stacked like blocks of flats. Some cases contained twigs and leaves, others sand and rocks. Milton remembered that Mr Macey had said there were a redback and a black widow here, and he had an idea. Glancing back to make sure Zoe’s bag was in legging-it distance, he scurried through the spider-city streets and eventually found what he was looking for.

Side by side were two plastic boxes, labelled Latrodectus hasselti 2301 Female, and Latrodectus mactans 5467 Male.

Milton crawled on to the first box to where a small, black spider was stretching her legs.

‘Hello,’ said Milton, through the tiny holes in the transparent lid.

‘Oh! You made me jump. G’day,’ she said, looking up.

‘Er, yes, good day, my name’s Milton. I’m a false widow from Bramley Road. What’s your name?’

‘It’s on the lid, possum. What are you doing out of your box?’

‘Possum? That’s a beautiful name. I was wondering . . .’

The redback laughed. ‘My name’s not possum, possum. It’s Latrodectus hasselti 2301, I’m not a show spider like Smith, I don’t have a short name.’

‘Oh.’ Milton blushed a little. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m not a show spider either . . . I don’t think.’ He attempted something more formal. ‘I’m Steatoda bipunctata, um . . . 2. Nice to meet you.’

The redback scurried towards him and hung from the underside of her case lid. Her little legs poked through a hole and they shook claws.

‘No worries, mate. Where did you say you were from?’

‘Bramley Road. Number 40. Opposite the garages.’

There was a short period of silence from beneath Milton’s feet before the redback spoke slowly. ‘Are you . . . from the . . . Outside?’

‘Yes. I got brought here by my human by mistake. But now I’m here, I wanted to meet you. And ask you something. Apparently we’re cousins.’

‘We are, mate. You, me and the black widow next door.’ The redback kicked out with her rear legs at a springy twig. It twanged against the plastic and in the next case another small black spider appeared. ‘Hey! Latrodectus mactans 5467, we’ve got company,’ she yelled.

Milton rolled his eyes.

They’ll have to do something about those names. I’ll call them Mack and Seltey.

‘Howdy there, little brown.’

‘Hello,’ said Milton. ‘I’m your cousin. I wonder if you could help me?’

‘Anything for family,’ said Mack, the black widow. He and Seltey, the redback, winked at one another.

‘Oh, thank you so much. My friends and I are in big trouble. There’s this woman, she’s a professional spider killer, and our house human, well, our big house human at any rate, has booked her company, BugKILL! to . . .’

‘Whoa there, fella, slow down. I can’t make head nor abdomen of what you’re saying.’

Milton took a deep breath. ‘I don’t have much time. I heard your big human – the professor. She said she “adores” spiders.

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