Grandmother Spider Bringer Of Dreams

Grandmother Spider
Bringer Of Dreams
by
Theresa Burres

At the beginning of time The Great Creator asked Grandmother Spider to watch after The People. She was happy to help so she spun a small web at the top of the long house. Days came and went with The People learning more things each day. The nights were spent in peaceful sleep.

One night as Grandmother Spider was sleeping in her web she heard one small boy start moving around in his bed. As she watched, the boy sat straight up and cried out for his mother. His mother went to the boy and tried to comfort him.

On the other side of the lodge another child called for her mother. One by one all of the children awoke in fear. Grandmother Spider was very concerned. She did not know what could be happening to the children.

Watching from her web she saw mothers and fathers calming little ones. It took a long time; but, finally all the children went to sleep.

Grandmother Spider quietly waited. The long house was once again washed with the peacefulness that came at night.

The daylight touched Grandmother Spider’s face waking her. The People, who usually rose with the first light of day, were just stirring. The Sun was peeking around the tree tops.

Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles talked among themselves as they went about their morning work. No one knew what to do about the children. Each child had told his mother and father about being chased by large hairy monster men that came from the top of mountains; and people that they did not know throwing blankets over them so that they could take them away. The People in the long house had never heard such scary things before.

Grandmother Spider puzzled over everything. By the time the Sun was kissing the hills goodnight everyone was ready to lay down to rest.

The soft sound of sleeping filled the lodge. Everything was calm. Then one by one the children once again awoke with cries of fear. Grandmother Spider woke with the first whine from the first small child. As she watched she thought that she saw a dark shadow slipping out of the smoke hole.

Once the children were calm enough to sleep Grandmother Spider slipped out into the night. She started asking each bird, animal and insect that lived near the lodge if anyone had noticed any thing out of the ordinary. The Sun was rising in East when Grandmother Spider found one little mouse who was looking for crumbs.

The small mouse, in her gentle way, told Grandmother Spider that while she was looking here and there for dinner she was sitting by a boy when something flew into the long house. It seemed to be a shadow that moved around the room. It floated into the ear of each child. A short time after the thing flew out of each child's ear they started moving and murmuring in their sleep. Then they woke up crying and afraid.

Grandmother Spider knew that she must do something quickly to stop the bad shadow thing. She climbed high into the rafters. She started spinning a web because spinning helped her think. In fact that is when she knew just what she needed to do.

Grandmother Spider rested and waited all that long day. Finally it was time for The People to lay down for the night. Softly she lowered herself down into the great room of the lodge. Quickly she spun web after web over the beds of the children. In the deepest and darkest part of the night a dark shadow flew into the long house.

High in the rafters Grandmother Spider watched as the shadow flew toward the little boy who was closest to the door of the long house. It swooped toward a boy’s ear when it stopped in midair caught in Grandmother Spider’s web. As fast as a flash Grandmother Spider lowered herself to the web and wrapped the shadow tightly.

By the time the sun sent a rosy glow to the sky Grandmother Spider was ready to take the Shadow creature to the Great Creator. When she had climbed to the lodge of the Great Creator she found that the Shadow had seeped out of the web. Grandmother Spider was upset that her web was empty. The Great Creator told her not to worry after all she now knew how to stop the Shadow creature.

Grandmother Spider slid back to the long house and starting spinning dream catchers for each child to hang above their bed. She left holes in her web so that good dreams can still come through but the dark dreams would be caught and held until daylight sets them free. Each night when the Shadow thing tries to find a child that it can whisper bad dreams to it can't find a single child in the long house without a web from Grandmother Spider.