3 The Charlotte Factor

The charlotte factor.

Webster ran after him. Stink shuddered just thinking about that spider. "Help! I gotta get over my arachno-thingy." "Maybe I can talk you out of being afraid of spiders," said Webster. "You like facts. Let's start with some spider facts. Tarantulas are called hairy mygalomorphs. Sounds cool, right?" "Sounds big and scary to me." "They have fangs. And they have hairs with pokey things like cactus spines. If an owl or skunk threatens them, they can shoot hairs at them." Webster pretended to be attacked by a thousand tarantula hairs. "RAHHHH!" "That's kinda cool," said Stink. "You sure know a lot about spiders." "My name is Web-ster. Just call me the Web Man." Stink grinned. "Tarantulas are afraid of people, just like you're afraid of them," said Webster. "Really?"

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"In some countries, people eat fried tarantulas. My cousin says they're gooey like peanut butter and taste like crab cakes." "Eww. Hairy peanut butter," said Stink. "What else you got, Web Man?" "Spider blood is light blue, like raspberry icepops or puppy eyes. That's not scary." Webster scratched his head. "Are you cured yet?" "Not yet," said Stink. "Let's try the Charlotte Factor. Here's how it works. I'll read to you from Charlotte's Web. Charlotte is a good spider who tries to cheer up Wilbur the pig by writing kind words like terrific in her web. If you like reading about Charlotte, maybe you'll start to like spiders." Webster read one whole entire chapter. "Are you cured yet?" "Not yet." Webster taught Stink how to sing "The Itsy- Bitsy Spider" in Spanish. "Are you cured yet?" asked Webster. "Not yet," said Stink. "I'll tell you a spider joke!" said Webster. "Then spiders will seem funny, not scary. Why do spiders make good baseball players?"

"Why?" asked Stink. "They catch flies!" Stink cracked up. "See? It's working!" said Webster. "What happened when the girl bit into a sandwich with a daddy longlegs in it?" "It became a daddy short legs!" said Judy, popping into Stink's room. "Hey, no spying on us," said Stink. "We're doing something." "Maybe I want to do it, too," said Judy. "You don't," said Stink. "I'm helping Stink to get over his arachnophobia," said Webster. "Fear of spiders," said Stink. "You can help," said Webster. "No! She can't!" said Stink. When Stink wasn't looking, Judy crossed her thumbs and wiggled her eight fingers in front of the desk lamp. "Stink! Look!" she cried. Stink saw the shadow of a giant spider creepycrawling across the wall. "AARGH!" yelled Stink. He hopped up and ran around in circles.

"It's just Judy making hand shadows," said Webster. "Out!" said Stink, pointing to the door. "I was just trying to help," Judy said with a sly grin as she left the room. "How about if you try looking at a picture of a spider?" Webster suggested. "I have a book about spiders," said Stink. "But I hid it in my Shark Attack game because it creeps me out." Webster went into the closet and pulled out the game with the Big Head Book of Spiders. "We'll start small." He flipped through the pages.