Local stories

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Goodbye, old friend

We here at Motif have some sad news to report: The eight-legged arachnid who stood (crawled) careful guard over the patrons of Warwick Library has finally curled into her final resting place. Beezus passed away peacefully at the ripe age of 20 in her spacious cage. She enjoyed metaphorical romps in the park with her literary partner Ramona, staring into the glass abyss, and the occasional fly. We are not sure if she knew exactly where she was, but sources report her eyes once softened at the sight of a young child reading a picture book. It is also rumored the book was about insects, so she could have just been hungry. Either way, Beezus had a heart of gold. Once, when the dutiful librarians took her out of the cage to clean it, she was dropped because, unfortunately, said librarian had a realization she was scared of spiders. Beezus was confronted with two choices, either scurry behind the Self-Help section or stay; would you believe it – she stayed. Our reputable sources report she hissed as the fearless librarian bent down to retrieve her, but I personally think that was just the water cooler re-filling. Beezus leaves behind a number of unfertilized egg sacs and a small collection of her favorite wood chips (the library offered to get her a mate, but someone unfortunately left a Simone de Beauvoir display in front of her cage instead of Nicholas Sparks). Nobody will ever replace Beezus, but our tireless sources report that Warwick Library is thinking of getting a snake and naming it Mrs. Dorothy Quimby.