Spring Flowers, Spring Frost

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AS HE WAS CROSSING THE INTERSECTION, Mark Gurabardhi noticed a crowd of people, which was growing by the minute, gathering on the right-hand side of the street. Most likely he would have walked past without a second glance if he hadn’t heard someone say the word snake! — spoken not in fright but in astonishment.

A snake at this time of year? Now that was out of the ordinary…. Mark went over to the knot of bystanders to see what was going on. Most of the people standing around were passersby, looking on just as he was. “Holy smoke, it really is a snake!” someone said, as they all shuffled around to let newcomers get a look. “But how can you tell if it’s dead or alive?” One glance was enough to tell Mark that it was neither dead nor alive, but just hibernating, like a normal reptile.

Two youngsters (something about them made it clear that, without specifying how, they were the ones who had unearthed the snake) flashed their eyes in pride at the crowd. To demonstrate their rights of ownership, they poked the creature this way and that with a stick. When they lifted the reptile off the ground, people shrank back, but each time they did, someone in the crowd piped up with a “Don’t worry, frozen snakes don’t bite, and even if you do get bitten, it’s not dangerous, the venom’s too weak, like it’s diluted by the cold….”

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