The Old Man and The Snake

The Incident that shall not be named...

They weren’t the best of friends and these weren’t the best of times.

When The Old Man and The Snake became acquainted, only The Old Man knew where the relationship would go and how it would end. The Old Man had met Friends of The Snake in the past. Point of fact, he almost married one. Almost.

Earlier on that fateful day, The Old Man had read an article in a local rag about The Snake being more afraid of humans than humans were of him. He always wondered how they knew. Did they take a snake survey to uncover these realizations? The article further suggested that Friends of The Snake were now angry at the human species for invading The Snake’s land. After all, the author noted, The Snake occupied the area first. It made The Old Man wonder about the sanity of the article’s author.

The Old Man doesn’t read magazines anymore after reading that kind of drivel. His time is getting shorter and shorter the longer he lives. Friends of The Snake can sit in their ivory towers and postulate all they want. Actually, The Old Man wouldn’t know a man postulating any more someone who pontificated.

No, The Snake Huggers know nothing about The Snake. When they breathe the same air as The Snake after seeing the beads of his eyes and the fork of his tongue, they’d know that humans were definitely more frightened than The Snake, much more frightened.

Just ask The Old Man.

He still can’t talk about The Incident.

Probably never will.

He’s too busy postulating somewhere and giving the article writer a piece of his mind, that is, if he could bother taking the time to determine what was left.

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