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case Billy would continue to sit until consumed. (Billy’s reaction to even a pinprick was nil.) But after installation of an elaborate fire alarm system and a machine that would automatically dial 911, she managed to rest easy.
    Occasionally Billy’s mother would leave the TV on for him, knowing full well that it made no difference, but somehow feeling better for doing it.
    On this fateful day, the television was not on. Therefore Billy sat in complete silence. Time passed. Morning shadows lengthened into those of the early afternoon. Billy sat as his mother had left him. He did not stir, save to blink now and then. His heart beat. His lungs worked. The few neurons he owned discharged in their efficient, albeit limited fashion.
    Directly above Billy’s head, a spider was attached to the ceiling by her thread. She was a rather large black spider, of a mundane household species, but about the size of a ping-pong ball. Although Billy’s mother was a good housekeeper, she had somehow missed this spider in her weekly cleaning.
    The spider was very intelligent, as were most members of her species. Contemplating Billy’s gaping skull below her, the spider reached the conscious decision that the inside of Billy’s head represented a safe and attractive place to build a web.
    The spider began to descend, letting out silk in her judicious way.
    She paused a few inches above Billy’s open pate. From this vantage, the place still held its appeal.
    The spider entered Billy’s skull.
    When her legs touched Billy’s bare brain, Billy’s limbs twitched.
    The spider cut her silk. She looked around. The place was pleasantly confined, yet open to passing insects.
    “This is a good place to build a web,” she said aloud, to herself.
    Then she began to spin a web, parallel to the base of Billy’s brain, and anchored to the sides of his skull.
    Since the spider did not again touch Billy’s brain, he did not move.
    When Billy’s mother returned that night, the spider’s web was complete.
    Billy’s mother did not notice, since she had long ago ceased to look inside Billy’s head.
    When supper was ready, Billy’s mother brought him to the table.
    The spider was initially somewhat alarmed when her new home began to move. But since the movements were gentle, and her web was not threatened, she eventually accommodated herself to the notion that her web was now mobile. It seemed an advantage, in that more territory would be open to her predations.
    Billy’s father, massaging and exercising his son’s limbs later that night, also failed to perceive the new occupant of his son’s skull.
    Thus a new symbiosis was achieved with little difficulty.
    For the next few weeks, the spider lived a pleasant life, alone in Billy’s skull. She caught bugs. She ate them. She slept.
    Billy’s exterior life did not change.
    One day the spider heard an unusual noise outside her home. It resembled the sound of claws digging into the fabric of Billy’s chair. The spider looked nervously up at the rim of Billy’s skull.
    The next instant two pink paws appeared, followed by a whiskered snout.
    A moderate-sized rat, his hind legs on Billy’s shoulders, now peered into the spider’s home. His black eyes were like twin chips of marble.
    “What’re you doing in there?” asked the rat.
    “This is my home,” answered the spider.
    “This is a human. A strange human, for it doesn’t notice us. But it’s still a human. You can’t live inside a human.”
    “But I do.”
    The rat considered this reply. “No one bothers you?”
    “No.”
    “Is it dry in there?”
    “Reasonably so.”
    “Then I’m coming in to live too.”
    “You’ll break my web.”
    “I don’t care.”
    The spider in turn considered this assertion. She doubted she could dissuade the rat. And not being poisonous, she had no defense. So she resolved to give in.
    “Just let me rework my web. I’ll have the rear, and you can have the front.”
    “Good enough. Hurry up