Kindness to a Spider

The soft steps of his shoes halted. He second-guessed what his eyes had just seen on the doorframe of his garage. He took a step back and leaned over to peer at the black spot frozen to the grey paint-chipped wood. Eight fuzzy little legs were clearly sticking out form the black dot. Great. A little spider. Those pesky arachnids were infiltrating his house!

With an outward breath of annoyance, he took his hand out of his pocket and curled one gloved knuckle, ready to squash the pest into bug juice. "What are you doing?" Harley's cheerful voice was followed by her embracing arms around him. "Killing a spider." He grumbled, not distracted. The little black thing scuttled down the doorframe, as if it knew its life was in jeopardy. His black eyes followed it like a hawk as his knuckle hovered above it.

"Oh don't kill it!" Harley lowered his hand with a small amount of alarm. "It's just a buggy!" She kneeled in front of him, facing the spider which was still scrambling down the wall, hoping to find cover on the cement ground. She took a slender knife out of her boot and waited until the spider was almost to the ground before blocking his path with the blade.

"Fine, you kill it." Joker folded his arms, watching her. "No, I'm gonna put him outside." Harley reached up to unlock and open the garage door, letting the cold faint smell of dormant gasoline waft in to the building. She guided the spider with her knife, nudging it in the direction of the open door. Joker scoffed at her childish mercy. "He'll just find his way back in here again."

"Maybe not." She mumbled, focusing as the spider retreated away from the door. She guided him in the right direction again and let out a squeak as he jumped over her knife and dashed for her feet. With a  giggle, she scooped him up on her knife and tapped it gently on the doorframe, dropping him into the garage. "Maybe he learned his lesson."

Joker smiled at her slight cuteness. "Does it really matter? It's a spider, Harl." She stood up and closed the door, smiling back at him. "Well, he might have a family... Don't worry, I took care of it!"

Yes she did. Spider gone. No blood spilt, joyous day for everyone. Just another small but passionate display of Harley's incomprehensible kindness.