One summer day, when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I was playing basketball alone while my sister Sue and our neighborhood friend Janelle watched me. During one of my throws, my ball rebounded and bounced over to the edge of the garage of the house next door. It then slowly rolled in an eerily strange circular motion and stopped. I recall thinking, "How weird" about the way it came to a slow stop. When I picked up the ball, I found a pretty big snake underneath. In my young eyes, it looked huge and about 5 feet long, but it was probably closer to two and a half feet in length. Luckily, my uncle happened to be painting the inside of that house's driveway where the snake was lying. I ran inside to get him because I didn't want the snake to slither its way anywhere around where I was playing. Plus, I trusted he wasn't afraid to handle it.
What does he do? He grabs the snake and chases us with it. I had no time to feel betrayal, instead, I was instantly terrified. We all ran into my house. Janelle and I made it into the bathroom, but my poor sister Sue made it only half in while we tried to shut the door. It wasn't on purpose, it just happened that she didn't make it in when we wanted that door shut. I can still visualize my poor sister while my uncle held that snake in her face while we all shrilled blood-curdling screams.
He finally stopped torturing us and let the snake free off into the backyard of the house he was painting. He explained it was a harmless Garter snake. I stopped playing basketball that day but from then on, I am very aware of how a ball lands if it lands on top of something coiled like a snake. And, I will be careful about who to ask for help if my ball ever landed strangely the way my basketball did that day.
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