One Saturday Morning

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I was eleven years old when I first saw a real life snake up-close. Prior to that day, everything I’ve known about snakes were things I heard from people or saw on television. But that didn’t make my fear for the creature any less.

If I remember clearly, it was the weekend, on a Saturday morning when I saw the snake because I and my siblings were at home, we didn’t go to school that day. We had all just finished saying our morning prayers and my dad had gone to work while my mom was already at her shop which was right in front of our house.

My elder brother was sweeping the room when he ran out screaming “snake snake snake”. I had thought it was a prank and started laughing. He immediately went to my mom’s shop and told her what he saw and she quickly asked us to go wait at her shop while she looked for help.

Few minutes later and she was back with this man who lived down the street. He went into the room with a long stick, hoping to strike the thing to death but the state he found the creature in didn’t really require him striking it anymore.

The white snake had swallowed a huge rat and that had prevented it from moving around swiftly as it normally would as it was still trying to digest it meal. The man brought out the snake and it was killed and burnt.

Then somebody asked a question, he asked that “what would have happened to us if the snake had not swallowed anything and had come directly for us in our sleep?” We tried not to think of a response because we all knew the answer to that question will be nothing but tragic.

After overcoming the fear of what could had happened to any of us if that snake had not swallowed that huge rat that rendered it weak, we searched for the hole it had crawled in from and blocked it.

That was the first time I saw a snake up close and I have no plans of seeing another one anytime soon.