Everybody's Gotta Know Me

The town was known to have hidden away treasures after stealing them. The town was known to avenge anyone who stole their stolen treasures. The town was known to lie about their evil deeds.

The snake slithered and slid, its body weaving left and right the whole way to the desert-laden town that was the Wild, Wild West. Everyone screamed—at least the cook, baker and schoolteacher who were outside on this blisteringly hot weekend day—and hid, becoming recluses all weekend. Friday was going to be a shut-in. Monday came, but the snake sighed.

“Geez. What a snake gotta do to get some attention around here, huh?”

Then an idea came to him. “Ah! I know. I’ll cool myself by…” He turned around, noticing a palm tree over yonder where some houses lounged. “The lake!” He slid over there, but everyone scurried away, grabbing beach towels, kids, their own goggles and heading towards their cars or homes, shutting themselves in.

“What?” Tears came to the snake’s eyes. “I’m not poisonous. Please! I’m just a stranger coming to town. I don’t mean to scare nobody.”

The snake glided around town, but the only living things were tumbling weeds being kicked around by the wind. He shook his head. “If only I had my family with me. Lil’ Tod would love this place. He’d hang by the pool, and jump in, pretending to be a sea snake. And little Callie would hang out with me, saying things like, ‘I love palm trees, Dad! Thanks for the shade’. And then my mate would say, ‘Wow, what a beautiful day’. And then go home, bored with the day.”

He rolled his eyes. “No wonder the kids always want to go with me. I never understand her.”

“Understand who?”

The snake jumped. He twirled around, but a hoof stopped it, froze it. Once his fear thawed, the snake blinked and stared up at what turned out to be a horse once it slithered out of the sunlight glaring down at him. He squinted. “You live here?”

“Yes, I live here.”

Soon, a whole herd of horses corralled the snake, him bending his head and threatening to spit. But the horse from before said, “No need to fear. We’re gentle.” Someone led out a laugh, but the black stallion neighed at him to shut his mouth. “We’re kind to strangers. Especially folk who don’t come here. Where are you from, snake?”

“Well, I just wanted to travel the world. I’m not a threat. But people have shut themselves inside,” he said, looking around at all the saloons and houses on either side of him. “their houses. I just wanted a little adventure!”

“So you want to shake things up a little bit, huh?”

“Marcie, that’s rude!”

“Shut it, Bobbie!”

The black stallion said to him that he could stay; just stay hidden. He did so for several days, but when a teen cowhand came by to clean out the stalls, the black stallion stayed perfectly calm, not moving a muscle. The cowhand blinked. “Huh?” He muttered, staggering a little away from the snake. The horse smiled very small to himself.

He don’t know anything about snakes. Not yet!

He nickered to the snake, which the snake knew meant go up to him. The boy froze, staring straight at it. But the snake just slithered around in a circle, encircling his feet. And then he returned to his post beside the horse. The horse flicked his tail, but nothing happened until the boy unfroze and ran to tell everyone that the snake was still here. The horse roared out a laugh. “Did you hear that, Snake?”

“Name’s Snaky! Not Snake.”

“Whatever. But he’s going to lose his fear. The first one of them.”

“Well, snakes are scary.”

“Not ones that are friendly, right?”

“Well…”

“Watch.”

The horse watched the boy take one shaky step towards the snake, and when all the townspeople saw him, they screamed and shouted for him to stop. The boy didn’t. he raised that pitchfork which was upside down (the prongs pointed south), and his eyes were crazy with glee as he cried, “Die, snake, die! No one touches our treasure!”

Then he chased the poor thing around and around the town, the townsfolk yelling and screaming for him to just kill the stupid thing, like they were all at a sports match. The boy tried lunging for the snake’s head, but the laughing black stallion got every other horse to cry out in praise, “Good job, Snaky! You’re awesome. Keep that boy running!”

Finally, with sweat streaking down his face like rain on a window sill, the boy stopped, almost wheezing. “I…I can’t do it. The snake’s too gosh touting good! I’ll never catch a snake, never!”

“Oh, come on!”

The townsfolk tried encouraging him to never give up, but the boy was smart. He waved hands at them, and they quieted. “I can’t!” He walked and then collapsed into a pile of hay—outside the barn. He took deep breaths, and then forced himself up. “I need some coffee!”

As he walked away to what was presumably his house, the boy never looked back but invited his friends to go play ball somewhere near the palm trees and shiny lake over yonder. The snake watched him as he was peering out from around the barn’s wall. That boy will never like me. But I know I can shake this town up. I think it’s an evil town. I don’t think that boy’s going to play ball. I think he’s going to play ‘Slaughter-the-Snake’!

And the snake was right. The boy grabbed his machete and dashed towards the snake. Horrified, the snake reared back, and hissed. Then he lunged for the boy’s neck. His fangs pierced the jugular. The boy cried out, releasing the machete. The friends, the snake saw for a split second, stared in horror, their feet rooted to the spot, their weapons on the ground.

“Yeah, come and get me!”

The boys froze, all of them. Then, “Did that snake just talk?”

“Yeah! I heard you folks were a bad group of people. Always destroying.”

“Well, we own treasure—”

The snake slithered away, the black stallion fearing for its life. He dashed after the snake, and hissed, “What are you doing?”

The snake didn’t answer, but slithering over to a bottle of poison, he dipped his fangs into it. Unfortunately, pounding of feet whipped him around. He went for it, the boy screaming, dropping his weapon, and falling to the ground. Writhing in pain, his pupils dilated, his mouth released foam and he was still in a second.

“He’s dead!”

The boys released the news. The town was going to murder this snake!

But the snake told the black stallion, “They murder, I show them what it’s like to attack. Not vengeance; just what they deserve. They murder, I strip them of life, too.”

At the funeral, the guns didn’t work. No animal was unsafe from the town. The townsfolk soon buried the snake and the black stallion. Together, they were buried.

After the townsfolk tried stopping a vengeful cowhand from attacking their own. They tried telling him he shouldn’t hurt those who didn’t do any harm to him. “Maybe not me, but you hurt others!” He justified his almost murder.

“Yes, but we’re not anymore.”

“Whatever.”

The black stallion and snake died, together.

The townsfolk set out a law that whoever hurt them would be hurt.

Not vengeance; just a lesson to learn.