When Thomas was a little boy, he liked to spend summer with his grandma. She was living in a beautiful country-site of Poland. Although, her house did not look so attractive - in the house there were many inconveniences too - Thomas was always felling very happy and excited when he spent his time there.

 

The house looked like a small box with facing down half-opened book on the top. The half-opened book, which was the roof, had a small red chimney. The color of roof and walls was dark brown; however, the color of walls was a little lighter than the color of the roof.

 

The house had a main entry door at the front, which was in direct way to a kitchen, and at the back there was another one to the garden. Further, each side of the house had one or two windows - the front side as well as the rear side had for two windows and the other two ones had for one window each.

 

Inside the house there was a kitchen with a big stove and two bedrooms. Because the main entry door was in direct way to the kitchen, and also the kitchen had two doors to other rooms, the center of life in the house was always surrounded at the kitchen. For instance, if somebody wanted to go to the one of the bedrooms, ones must always do it through the kitchen. In addition, the kitchen had another door to outside - the door to the garden.

 

Kitchen was Thomas' favorite place - he liked to spend a lot of time surround the stove. The main fuel for the stove was wood and coal. Thomas felt great happiness, especially at the evenings, when he was observing dancing flames inside the stove. In spite of warnings from his grandma - playing with the fire was dangerous - Thomas was always taking advantage of moments when she was too busy and did not pay attention for what he was doing. At these great moments, he quickly put additional log of wood or more papers to make the flames larger.

 

As the same as many country-site houses, Thomas' grandma house did not have a toilette. The toilette was located outside the house in distance of 15-20 meters. In other words, which are more practical in explanatory, the distance was 8-12 seconds of quick walking.

 

The toilette was a wooden box with a door. Behind the wooden box there was a square pool. The purpose of the pool was to produce the best in the world fertilizer. For this reason, the pool was packed with hay and well known biologically originated substances. Unfortunately, the process of manufacturing the high-class fertilizer had a small side effect - the mixture of hay and the biological substances produced a very specific aroma, which definitively would cause of bankruptcy protection procedures for manufactures of perfumes.

 

Furthermore, inside the wooden box - the washroom of course - there was a seat with a circular whole. The dimension of the whole and its shape were irrelevant because most of the time the seat served perfectly well to its purpose. In spite of it, the seat with the whole Thomas called a throne because even kings could not deny the fact of using this type of sit.

 

One day, when Thomas was inside the wooden box he met there a new friend. For the first time (he never forget it) when he met the friend there it was a rainy day. Thomas noticed that something was moving in one corner inside the washroom. When he looked closer, he had seen a big beautiful spider! The spider had dark cream color and medium size cross in the center of his abdomen.

 

In spite of stories that kids exchanged about these types of spiders, Thomas was not afraid of him! Moreover, when he was looking at the spider, he had feeling that one wanted to be noticed by him. Since then, each time when Thomas felt that he must contribute to the process of manufacturing the best in the world fertilizer, he captured a fly and brought it to his friend. In exchange, the spider entertained Thomas when he was sitting (like a king) on the throne - when he thrown the fly at his web, the spider immediately run to the captured fly and started to do a lot of movements. Finally, the spider wrapped the fly with his tread.

 

Thomas told about his new friend to his grandmother. She listened him and after a moment of silence, she asked him if he gave a named to his new friend. Thomas was thinking for a while and a  idea for the name come to his mind. He told his grandma: "I call him Fred!" Grandma smile and said: "so you have to take care about your new friend Fred." - "I will do!" Thomas answered with great enthusiasm.

 

Thomas' vacations were coming to the end. The new school year was just around the corner. So, Thomas had to return to his parents who were living at the other part of Poland. Before he left grandma's place he caught a fly and run to Fred as usual. He watched him for a while. Fred was busy with the fly. Thomas said to Fred: "Goodbye my friend." At this moment, Fred stop wrapping the fly. It looked like he heard Thomas. After the short while Fred resumed his activities.

 

Thomas returned to say goodbye to his grandma. She looked at Thomas and see him to be sad. She said: "I see that you said goodbye to Fred. Do not worry, I will be looking after him." Thomas hug his grandma and said with a great joy: "Thank you grandma!" Grandma replied with a smile: "Thanks to Fred I felt more safe about the fireplace." Thomas understand at this moment that grandma knew about all his secret feeding with wood and papers of the fireplace.

 

Two months later, Thomas' grandmother passed away.  After the funeral, during the reception at the grandmother's house Thomas was trying to find Fred. Unfortunately, Fred's corner was empty. When he was walking back to the grandmother's house, he stop for a moment. He felt like his grandmother was standing beside him and saying: "Do not worry, I will be looking after him."

 

After many years, Thomas is often returning in his memory to his grandma's house - he miss his grandma, the house, the stove, and his friend Fred - the spider.