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I'm being protected now, for a reason.
Having made the decision to love, had I chosen life instead of death?
thirty-six
JL T WAS coiled in the sand of the jeep-trail, coiled and ready to strike at the pickup truck bumping toward it ten miles per hour. I stopped the truck short and reached for the CB microphone.
"Hi, wook, can you hear me?"
There was a moment's silence, and she answered from the radio in the trailer.
"Yes. Why are you stopped?"
"There's a snake, blocking the way. Could you get the snake books? I'll give you a description."
"Just a minute, sweetie."
I eased the truck ahead, turned to draw alongside the creature. It licked the air with its black tongue, frowning. When I ran the engine up, it blurred the rattles of its tail, a dry-gourd hiss: I'm warning you . . .
What a brave snake! If I had that courage, I'd stand with
my fists against a tank three blocks tall six blocks wide, frown Don't you roll ahead, I'm warning you . . .
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"Got the snake books," she said on the radio. "Be careful, now. Stay inside and don't open the door, OK?"
Yeah, the snake said. You listen to her and you be careful. This is my desert. You mess around with me, I'll kill your truck. I don't want to do it, but if you force me, I got no choice. The yellow eyes looked at me unblinking, the tongue tasted the air again.
Leslie couldn't contain her curiosity. "I'm coming out to see."
"No! Better you stay right there. Might be a whole nest of these in the sand. OK?"
Silence.
"Leslie?"
Silence.
In the rear-view mirror I saw a figure step from the trailer and start toward me. One thing you don't get with these modern man-woman relationships, I thought, is obedience.
"Excuse me," I said to the snake. "We'll be right back."
I reversed down the road, stopped for her. She got in the right side with the books: A Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians and A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide-The Desert Southwest.
"Where's the snake?"
"Waiting for us," I said. "Now, I want you to stay inside. I don't want you popping out of the truck, do you hear?"
"I won't if you won't." There was adventure in the air.
The snake hadn't moved, hissed the truck to a stop.
Back again? Well, that's as far as you're going, not one inch farther than last time.
Leslie leaned over against me to see. "Hel-lo!" she said, bright and vivacious, "hello, snakey! How are you today?"
No answer. What do you say when you are a rugged wily tough poison desert rattler and a sweet pretty little-girl voice asks you a question like that: "How are you today?" You don't know what to say. You blink your eyes, but you say nothing.
