The Snake Mafia by Gennifer Choldenko

Author:Gennifer Choldenko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

We hear his car before we see it. His windows are rolled down; the Indian talk-radio station he loves to listen to is chattering in earnest.

“Harpreet,” Niko whispers as Harpreet turns the old taxi in to the strip mall. He waves, smiles, nods his turbaned head.

We dive into his old taxi, piling in on top of one another.

“Go!” my dad shouts when he gets the door closed.

“Go, all right, Mr. James. We will go.” Harpreet nods, fussing with his sun visor.

I settle back, digging between the seats for the seat belt. But my hand touches something cool and slippery, something alive. I yank it back.

“Niko.” I try to get the word out, but my jaw is frozen with fear. “There’s a—a—”

My dad sees it, too. His face is shiny with sweat. His skin is tinged with blue as we watch a snake crawl across Niko’s lap.

Harpreet is nattering on to his taxi, giving it encouragement. “All right, little lady, we will go.”

“Harpreet, stop. There’s a snake,” my dad whispers.

“A what, Mr. James? No. No snakes in my cab.” Harpreet pounces on the brakes, and jumps out.

I don’t breathe watching the brown striated snake move coil by coil, its black-ink line pupils transfixed, its head shifting from side to side as it slithers down Niko’s leg. This one looks different—not like the others.

“Can I have him, Dad?” Niko asks. “Can I?”

Harpreet yanks open the passenger door, grabs the snake just behind its jaws, and sends it soaring through the parking lot.

Harpreet shakes his finger like a windshield wiper. “No snakes. Not in my cab.”

My dad wipes the sweat off his chin.

My heart is still pumping loud like it lives in my ears. I shudder, thinking about that snake’s weird eyes. That snake was venomous.

“Guess we found it,” I say.

“Guess so,” my dad whispers.

“All right, Harpreet.” My dad offers a frozen smile, his eyes full of the shock of how close we came. “No snakes in your cab.” He cranks down the window and gasps the outside air, which has finally begun to cool.

“And there are other things.” Harpreet is ranting now. “I do not like this business you are messing up with, Mr. James.”

“Mixed up with,” my father corrects.

“Mixed up with,” Harpreet concedes. “‘Emergency. Come now.’ You scared Harpreet.”

“Yeah, Dad,” I say. “You scared Harpreet.”

Niko doesn’t say anything. He just holds my dad’s hand, smiling like he has found something way better than a pig in a blanket.

“You must promise, Mr. James,” Harpreet says sternly.

“They’re ripping whole species out of the wild and selling them for a killing. Endangered animals, Harpreet. And nobody’s stopping them because the Fish and Wildlife Department has no money.”

“They have laws,” Harpreet mutters.

“But no one is enforcing them. That’s the point.”

Harpreet’s dark eyebrows furrow. “You can’t catch aaaaall the bad people in the world,” he mutters.

“When I see something wrong I—”

“No snakes in the cab,” Harpreet interrupts. “No scaring Harpreet.” He claps his hand back on the wheel.

I check my father to see how he’s taking this.

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