Jane Dreams of William
Least visible were the earth creatures. One needed only to sweep back the leaves or lift a rock to see them. But unless looked for, they went unnoticed. The tiniest of these unseen creatures bore much of the work of the forest. Little bugs and worms slowly ate their way through the biggest of trees, fallen or upright. They found almost nothing inedible. On what scavengers left behind, they would feast, turning dead animals and vegetation into nutrients which the forest would use again and again.
The ground was home to forms of life that most people shrink and recoil from. Grubs and earthworms, snakes and salamanders slithered and crawled there. Their slimy city bustled under the leaves, and even beneath the rock on which Jane and William sat.
Copperhead Snakes and Timber Rattlers made their homes here. William seemed to have a gift for sensing the legless reptiles. As a very young child, barely old enough to speak, he once warned his mother of an approaching Copperhead. As she hung wet laundry on the clothesline, the little boy stood feet away, calling to her. “Nake! Nake!” It took her a minute or so to understand what he was trying to say, and she quickly backed away with her son, leaving her basket of wet clothes behind. William often saw what was barely visible to others.
As he sat, in the dream, with Jane on the rock, he was aware of the activity that went on below them. A few feet away, unbeknownst to his companion, a snake crept along. It moved quietly between the layers of dry leaves above and wet leaves below. It poked out its tongue every few seconds and wagged it at the air, tasting the pheromones of the human visitors. Its head and tail revealed its nature to the discerning. Its slit-pupil eyes sat inside a diamond-shaped skull. At the end of its tail, a shaker that warned of its approach. His thick skin secreted a pungent snake smell which harmonized with Patchouli and the smell of the forest. The creatures around him knew that he was present. Some flew or scurried away while others went about their business, unmoved by him.
William felt a soft breeze caress his face. The leaves in the trees rustled in response. The leaves at his feet rustled in response to the long form slowly undulating below.
Jane looked down. On her right leg, a firm squeeze coiled around and rose up toward her thigh. Unafraid, she watched as its head came closer, its long body still partially covered on the ground. She felt its power and she shuddered as it rounded her neck and tasted the air next to her eye.
Offering no prior intercession, as if to allow the snake this interaction, William’s weathered hands grasped the snake behind its head, almost strangling it. The same hands that once gently delivered a winged gift to his daughter now squeezed the snake with violent reproach and hurled it away. It wriggled as it flew through the air, coming to a stop when it hit a large tree. Landing limp, it recovered in a few moments and slowly slithered away, stealthy under the leaves, and no worse for the wear.
