Lessons on the Snakes of Life

This?

Yesterday as I was cleaning the patio I saw a small brown, therefore probably poisonous, snake lying under one of the plants. It was outstretched, lying perfectly still. It looked like it was thinking. Possibly wondering where it wanted to go and curl up. I held my breath, backed away, then turned and raced to the garage to get the hoe. Once back and with the hoe poised to kill I sneaked up on the snake still lying in the same outstretched position. I tiptoed up behind it and THWACK! I got it! Right behind its head! I held the hoe firmly down on the pavement but oddly the snake didn’t squirm. I edged a bit closer and noticed that it was already dead, possibly injured at some point by one of my rabbits (one of them killed a rat once) then dried up by the hot sun. When I stooped to look more closely I saw that it wasn’t a snake at all but a long brown dead leaf which had fallen from the Amaryllis plant above. Whew! No snake infestation. Thank goodness.

But then that night snakes infested my dreams. I dreamed that I was in some sort of camp (I’ve been reading The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century by Robert Royal). There were no people around since they were all either working in the fields or in brain-washing classes. I was in charge of cleaning the Commandant’s office and there lying on the carpet was a long skinny green snake, which very obviously meant that there was a snake infestation, or soon going to be, which in turn meant trouble from the evil Commandant. Wanting to keep an eye on the snake to see where it went, I called out for someone to bring me a hoe.