A Beautiful Worm
By ice rivers
- 243 reads
The first book that I ever took out from a library was a book about snakes by Herbert S Zim.
My next two books were also written by Zim. One was about dinosaurs and the other about whales.
I loved the names of the snakes in Zim's book. I was fascinated by the idea that they were fanged and poisonous, especially the ones with the coolest names; cobra, rattler, diamond back, copper head and the best name of all...water moccassin.
I also loved the names of ones that were huge and could squeeze ya to death; boa constrictor, python, anaconda.
I was relieved and yet disappointed that none of these snakes lived in New York so we made 'em up. It Didn't matter much that they weren't around when we were playing " run through the jungle" which was always full of pythons or " lost in the swamp " which was always full of water moccassins.
In New York, we did have a snake that looked poisonous....the king snake. A king snake resembles a coral snake, one of the deadliest. I always hoped to see a king snake which became my favorite snake because not only was he the king of snakes but also a good guy who wouldn't hurt you.
Still, I kinda wished that we lived somewhere else so I might see one of the deadly snakes. As a boy scout, I learned how to apply first aid to a snake bite. Cross cut between the punctures, suck out the venom, apply a tourniquet and get to the doctor ASAP.
When we moved to North Carolina a couple years ago, I wondered if I might see one of the poisonous snakes. Around our neighborhood, there were rumors of copperheads in the woods.
Whenever we walk through the woods around here, we're always a little wary that we might step on one and it might strike back.
Yesterday, we were on our daily walk around the neighborhood. We were nowhere near the woods. We were walking on the sidewalk. I noticed what appeared to be a very long worm at rest on the sidewalk. When I got closer, I realized that I was looking at a baby snake. When I got closer still, I realized that I was looking at a copperhead.
The copperhead was in our territory and therefore was in much more danger from us than we were from it. When I was in Montana, I heard a story about a little girl who had played with what she thought were biting worms but were in fact baby copperheads. She had been bitten a few times while she played with them and almost died from the tiny bites until her parents figured things out and got her to the doctor just in time.
The little girl's name was Claudia. When she grew up, she loved the mountains and the mountains, in their savage way, loved her back.
I got up close to the copperhead to check out the copper on the head. Lynn warned me to stay away fearing, I suppopse that the snake would jump up and attach it to my face. I was pretty sure that snakes didn't jump so I took a good look from a safe distance just to make sure.
Yup, it was a copperhead.
Also it was December and it was 76 degrees.
Strange things are happening
I realized that if I wanted to I could just stomp down on the reptile's head and that would be it for this neighborhood terror. This beautiful worm, after all was on our turf catching some unexpected warmth and didn't belong there. It was gonna be a long crawl back to the woods from whence it had emerged and it might run into a kid along the way who wanted to play with the cute worm.
Live and let live is one of my mottoes. We walked past that copperhead. I was reminded of Herbert S Zim and my first trip to the library.
And once again remembered Montana, mountain goats, buffalo jumps and cutthroat trouts.
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Comments
Good vignette incorporating
Good vignette incorporating childhood memories and current life.Children will like this much. A salud, Ice.
JXM
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