Snakes

They were everywhere. She could feel them slithering up her legs with their little tongue in and out, out and in. They were on her arms, neck, and crawling across her stomach. One of the snakes plopped down on the top of her head and was crawling down her face. They were everywhere. Every inch of her body was covered by their slithering body and she could feel their tongues hitting certain spots on skin. Their slithering body, the scaling skin she could feel touching her body at parts of her body that didn’t make her feel safe and secure. When was the first one going to bite her and kill her?

When was the first one going to bite her silky skin? Falling into the hole as she ran down the mountain trying to get away from the men that wanted to harm her, her mind had started to wonder why they were after her. She hadn’t been watching where her feet were landing and all of a sudden she was running in empty air. Falling as fast as she could to the bottom of the pit, she heard the worst noise that she could hear which was the slithering of snakes toward her. The first one touched her hand and continued onward to slither across her belly. Wanting to jump up and scream as loud as she could, she remembered something her dad had said, “Lie as still as you can and the bear will think you are dead.” He had also told her friend that and he had been attacked by the bear when he realized that he wasn’t dead.

Was a bear the same as a snake? Could she lie long enough to make the snakes think she had die when she hit the ground. They continued out of little holes in the wall, slithering toward her. Her flesh wanted to crawl as the snakes continued coming her way and onward to different parts of her body. She sensed the other person before he spoke or did something to make the snakes scared enough to bite her. He stood there watching the snakes crawl all over her before he decided to help her.

Pulling snakes off of her and throwing them to the ground above the hole seemed to take hours when in fact only about four snakes had come her way. She still could feel them crawling on her bare skin as their scaly skin touched her. A hand was extended downward to help her up and she tried her hardest to brush the feeling of the snakes off of her. She didn’t want to think or even remember what had just happened. It was in the past and that is where it was going to stay.

Mixed feeling start to overcome her starting with joy of being away from those creepy animals and wouldn’t have to feel that any more. Scared that this man was one of the men that had been chasing her to harm her, when all the time she wanted to throw her arms around his slender neck and plant a wet kiss on his cheek as her way of showing appreciation for what he had done. That in itself had to be a brave move on his part, a move that she wasn’t sure she could do if it came down to her saving him from snakes.  To actually touch the snake and throw them as far as possible had to be something that would have made her feel violently sick and very scared.

He took hold of her hand and they started to walk in the direction of the end of the tunnel. She hadn’t seen the opening at all when she fall from the ground above. Looking back, she could see the snakes coming down from above and crawling down the walls to start following them in the direction they were going. She whisper, “The snakes are following us” which made him hurry his pace up to the opening. He said softly, “They will turn back when the sunlight hits them.” Walking into the opening and a few steps to make sure they were out of the cave, she looked back to see the snakes still following which she told the mystery man who had saved her. “They are still coming.”

He climbed up high to watch as the snakes started to curl into a tight ball in the sun to fall sound asleep. Some even stretch out, so the sunlight could hit their cold body from being in the cave. He pointed toward them as if to say that the snakes weren’t following them anymore. He smiled and she asked him if he had been one of the men that had been running after her before. He looked at her with a confused look on his face and replied, “Since I am not sure what you are talking about, I am going to have to say no it wasn’t me.”

They walked on for a while before she remembered that she hadn’t said thanks for saving her life back there.  She had wondered how he had known that she was down in the hole and she would need his help to get out of it. She slightly turned into his direction and asked the question she really need an answer to. Gathering her courage together, she look into his brown eyes and smiling face to ask, “How did you know I was in the hole and need help?” He smile back and it was like his whole face lit up from the smile on the face to the twinkle in his brown eyes.  His face went from being sour and distrusting to a handsome young face that looked for the adventure in life.

“I saw the two men that had been running after you looking down into the hole and seeing you lying there with snakes crawling over you. The cowards that they are, they left you to the revenge of the snakes. They left you to be bite by those slimy things.”   She imagined those men standing at the opening laughing at what she had gotten herself into. She wished that those men would find themselves in the same position sometime just to see how they would like it.

As they walked on, her feet were getting sore from walking what had seem for hours ,but she knew that it was only about an hour. He pointed to the sun going down and said, “My ranch is just over that hill. Can you make it or do you need me to give you a lift.” A lift would sound really good right now, but she didn’t want to push her presence on this mystery man more than she had already did. His ranch turned out to be a two leveled ranch house with several outbuildings which look like Heaven in her present situation. She could hardly wait to get into a hot steamy shower that would wash away all the thoughts of the past events.

That night was a night to remember with a feast of food that was awaiting her when she emerged from the shower. With her stomach full and no present harm awaiting her, she could feel herself slipping into a relax mood. She had washed every inch of her body and lotion her body with some lotion that she had found in the room that he let her use to feel human again.  They were sitting on the couch talking about what had happened when he said, “My name is Craig and I have lived on this small ranch for about four years. I love it out here with the quietness and no one around to cause trouble. I guess until today that was when I was out for a walk. I saw those men chasing you and I knew that I had better do something to help you. They looked like they meant to do bodily harm. I guess I better do something about those snakes and the cave before someone gets hurt. Why were those men chasing you?”

She sat there for a moment considering whether to tell him the truth and she knew without a doubt that he deserved it because he put his life on the line when he decided to help her get the snakes off of her. “First off, my name is Jane and I could say I really don’t know why those men were following. I had the impression that they meant to hurt me. I stop to get gas and they were there putting gas into their car. When I left they started to follow me and when I blew a tire, I took off running and they did too. I am not sure what they think I saw or what I did that made them mad. Maybe they do that to scare woman when they are in the car by themselves.”

“I don’t know what to tell you because I saw those two guys standing there at the hole and I knew someone needed help down there.” Craig was looking at Jane with an interested more than just being friendly. She looked at Craig with a sparkle in her eyes that spoke volumes before she knew what was happening. Their lips lightly touched each other and their passion started to flare upward. As their lips parted, they were breathless and surprised that the kiss had happened between two people that had just met. One person came to save the other which meant they went from strangers to friends. The future would tell what was to come between them.