Scamp brings joy to the office

Scamp visited this week. That’s what I call him, although he may go by another name – or by none. And he might be she. Who can tell with a spider?

I saw Scamp two days ago in my university office during posted office hours. I’d spied a flick of movement as I marked student writing on a computer.

And there he was atop one of my two desktop monitors, maybe three-eighths of an inch long.

I couldn’t have mistaken Scamp for a student. Students, for whom office hours are intended, never visit during posted hours. It’s in the student manifesto: “Professor office hours are for chumps.”

Scamp moved right, then left, then stopped. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I returned to my reading. Minutes later, I saw he’d crossed the one-inch gap to the second monitor.

Spiders usually ignite my primal leave-the-room-immediately reflex.

Not Scamp. S-o-o-o cute. He waved a couple of appendages, whose tips caught light from a fluorescent bulb in the cabinet just inches above. Like tiny flashlights.

Scamp, my super fan. My office, an arena. And I? Pop star.