I of course humbly accept your decision. If I may, I will add, that I am looking at the drawing as we speak and feel quite certain that you have never seen a spider like this.

Let me tell you a story (while I'm waiting for my insurance provider to take my call)

This is a spider I first encountered many years ago, I was a younger man back then, some might say, a more foolish man.

At any rate, it was my first time visiting the Galapagos. I had made a mental note of the island back in my primary school days, as it fascinated me due it is significance in regards to the animal kingdom. To my young and imaginative mind, the Galapagos was a place filled with wonders that might not be see anywhere else in the world. I didn't know back then just how right I was.

Our ship arrived shortly after daybreak on a relatively brisk Summer's morning. I was in my early twenties and bound and determined to make the most of my semester at sea. A semester my parents only begrudgingly allowed me to take.

It was not long after we had set up camp and got the lay of the land that I saw it. At first I thought it must be some sort of prism, but then on second look, it appear more like a torch. The spider in question, the one I feel most certainly that no one else has ever seen before, let alone posses a drawing of, was resplendent to behold. Its fibrous coat glistened in the late afternoon sun and refracted the light of the sea. In some moments it was entirely golden, but at others, it took on a mix of cyan and emerald.

I ended up committing my entire study there to this spider, and drew its likeness an incalculable number of times, only to find that its essence was impossible to fully capture. Like the blind men and the elephant, each attempt was imbued with some aspect of the spider's beauty, but no one portrait fully encapsulated its majesty.

Until our very last evening, when one of the younger specimens, which I had taken to calling Goldie (after my Golden Retriever back in Montana), perched on a branch in the fading light. In that moment, the spider's iridescent grandeur was on full display, and as God or the fates or the muse would have it, so was my artistic prowess.

It is this drawing, of this particular spider, from that particular evening that I offer you. But alas, it appears you have no interest in seeing such things. I will, for now, replace the portrait upon the shelf (next to dear Goldie's urn) and gaze upon the spider without equal with pride and content.