Night Terrors

Project 15 - Day 107

"Grab a flashlight and get out here" I shrieked as I stumbled through the front door.

"I'm watching a movie" he replied. "

"There's a giant snake slithering up one of our trees. Get a flashlight and get out here. It might be a python!"

The Kid, who was deeply engrossed in one of his bang, bang, shoot-em-up blood and gore type flicks, did not want to budge. Maybe it was the hint of hysteria in my voice that finally encouraged him to put the movie on pause. After what seemed like forever, he quietly retrieved a flash light from the hall closet and followed me outside...into the dark...into the wilds of our front yard at night.

The Kid: "I'm sure you're overreacting. Which tree is it?"

I pointed.

Words were no longer necessary because even in the dead of night there was no mistaking the long, slithering mass that was clinging to the large palm in our front yard.

The Kid: "That is a snake."

Panic Stricken Wife: "Well duh, do you think I don't know a snake when I see one?"

The Kid: "How did you find it?"

Panic Stricken Wife: "I certainly wasn't out looking for it."

Actually, it was bedtime. I was walking Henna. She decided she had more business to attend to than usual at this time of day so we had to do a little more walking and sniffing. I attempted to keep my feet on concrete (I hate the little ankle bites I get when I walk barefoot in the grass at night. They itch like the dickens) but her chosen path forced me onto the grass. I knew if stayed on the mulch at the base of the palm I'd be safe from the nibblers. As I ungraciously made my way around the base of the tree I put my hand out to steady myself and my heart stopped. It did. I swear it did. Because that's when I saw it, out of the corner of my eye the looooong, slithering reptile stretched endlessly across the tree's trunk. It had to be 8' long.

I may have screamed. I'm not sure. But by now my heart had jump started itself and was racing at a rate that would be frowned upon by most cardiologists. Finished with her duty or not Miss Henna was drug out of the grass onto the safety of the sidewalk and we bolted for the front door.

I hate snakes. Seriously, I do not like them. I know they are good. They eat things that I might find even less appealing if found in my yard. But they creep me out.... in a big way. And yet my curiosity was piqued. I needed a picture.

So there we stood, in the front yard, in the dead of night, in our sleep wear. The Kid, still grumbling about missing the best part of his movie, had a flashlight trained on the offending reptile. Me, still in shock and trembling with fear trying to hold the camera steady so I could get at least one good shot. One usable image. Proof that a giant reptile, maybe even a python, crawled up one of the palms in my front yard and scared the bejesus out of me. I know my family, without proof there would be doubt, followed by ridicule. I have learned it is much better to avoid ridicule, always.

It turns out it was not a python. It was corn snake. A very long corn snake. (We think somewhere around 5 or 6'.) A nonpoisonous variety that feeds on rodents. It was slithering up that palm in search of its supper. I know what lives up there. I don't like to think about it, but they're there. The rats. The dreaded palm rats.

All I can say is I hope it had a feast. Cleaned house and then slithered off to the neighbors tree, otherwise Henna may just have to learn to cross her legs and hold it til daylight.

Don't laugh, I'm NOT kidding.