The snake smiled...

...as he watched them through the open window. The poor sods always working and worrying as if any of it mattered. Filling the windowsill with his long frame he watched and waited for the one making dinner to come to the window-box as she always did. And she did indeed do precisely that. She was a creature of habit as most humans are. Then he bit her. Snakes have habits too. And this one bit people. She couldn’t believe her eyes. How dramatic there were puncture marks by her thumb. What’s wrong? her partner asked. I think I was bitten by a snake. A snake? It couldn’t have been. Look. Look at my hand. It was probably just that bent nail. Let’s eat. I could go on to say that they ate a normal meal and had a normal conversation, then halfway through dessert she collapsed into the custard. But I won’t say that because it didn’t happen like that. He wasn’t a poisonous snake, just one with itchy teeth. The wound started looking faintly yellow and sickly the next day. She looked at it in the mirror as she brushed her teeth.

The snake moved on to its next victim. Sometimes he liked simply to scare people. This time he curled around a plastic shovel that had been left in the garden and waited. Little boys were always leaving things all over the place. And it could be a day to whenever before they were required again and found and put away. He closed his eyes and settled down to nap. It was a sunny day. He loved the sun. it was a day and a half later when he was found. The boy came out to build a fort and saw him. He was still sleeping when he was picked up by chubby but strong hands. It was a first for him. The chokehold on his neck awoke him and he tried to focus. The boy lost interest in a few seconds and he dropped to the ground. An elaborate fort was constructed and the snake slithered slowly away into the long grass.

Tunng – Sweet William