One day when Erin was about 6 or 7, several friends from the neighborhood and I were playing in my backyard. I don’t remember everyone who was there, I just remember seeing another neighborhood kid come running into the backyard yelling, “Erin has a SNAKE!!!!!”
I looked up past the corner of the house to see my sister walking down the street towards our house, arm outstretched, something limply dangling from her bony little fingers.
You could watch the fear roll across the yard like a tidal wave. Kids ran around in circles, eyes darting from gate to gate trying to determine:
1. Which one Erin was going to come in, and,
2. How they were going to escape…
Earlier in the day we walked past a flattened foot long green snake up the road. It must have made an impression on Erin because she felt it necessary to go peel it off the hot summer pavement and bring it home.
I, fancying myself a gymnast and acrobat, flipped myself up onto the top of the swing set where I liked to practice my parallel bars routine. Jennifer, one of the group, attempted to cross the chain link fence but the crotch of her pants became entangled on the sharp edges and she was stuck for the remainder–no matter what happened next.
The two boys in the group, Ryan and Brian, were hiding behind furniture in our storage building. (it figures that the boys would hide while the girls attempt acrobatic feats to escape!).
When Erin was finally stopped and questioned on what exactly she thought she was doing, her response was simple.
“Well? It was dead!!!”
Erin’s logic is never immediately understandable. Maybe she was explaining to mom that she wasn’t technically disturbing it since it was already dead… Who knows? Too bad there isn’t a picture of that. I’d love to see her grinning with her super long pigtails on each side of her head. Holding that snake out for display…
The snake made a second appearance the next day when mom went out to take the trash out. She had forgotten that she had thrown it in there…
