The MinDimBit

(English translation of the Italian original: “Il MinDimBit”) Canberra, April 1995 It’s almost time to leave. Four years in Australia and the chapter is already closing. At this point it is customary to put together a few souvenirs. The first one is ready. It is a small Plexiglass plate with a Red Back from Canberra inside. Red Backs are small, plump and very poisonous spiders, recognizable by a bright red triangle on their black backs. This embalmed spider exhales a sad memory. One bad day, David, our giant family spider – a Huntsman , also from Canberra – went missing. Anny Moore, the small animal vet next door, was worried too. Six days away is a long time for a Huntsman. Anny had a lot of hypotheses. She had apparently ruled out the possibility that we had killed him. Over time, she had gotten to know us better and noticed that our Australisation process was progressing rapidly. Including the mutation from an instinctive arachnophobia to ...