The Crossings by Deborah Larsen

Author:Deborah Larsen [Larsen, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berylline Press
Published: 2019-04-24T18:30:00+00:00

That Mother of a Snake

When Sophie looked out her side window, there was Stella whom she had not seen for weeks. She looked like Daisy Mae: she wore cut-off jeans, a peasant blouse, silver hoop-earrings, and—hunting boots? Sophie saw that Stella’s upper arms were muscled.

She was carrying a rake and a long-handled edger and making her way down the riprap that bordered their properties. An edger? Why did people in the desert have edgers?

Then she saw what Stella was after. There at the base of the riprap was the first rattlesnake Sophie had ever seen in the wild. It must have been five or so feet long. She went for the binoculars she had recently purchased and when she looked through them at the snake, she jumped back. Though she was still in the house, it was so close and so monstrous that it seemed there was no barrier between her and it.

She could see the triangular head and she thought she could see one of the heat-sensing pits between the snake’s eye and its nostril. The diamonds were a light gray, dark-edged; now she could see the banded black-and-white tail above the rattles. Was it a Western Diamondback or a Mojave? She was betting on the former because the black stripes and the white stripes looked roughly equal in width.

She had a strange reaction. She thought the rattlesnake a thing of beauty.

All of a sudden she was outside. By this time Stella had pinned the snake with the rake she had in her left hand.

“Stand back, Sophie,” she said. “You may not want to see what I’m up to be doin’ here.” She raised the long-handled edger she held in her right hand. “Good thing Jack’s not home.”

Sophie stood still. She knew better than to say anything.

With one swift movement, Stella struck the pinned rattlesnake’s neck with the edger, and severed its head. “There,” she said. The rattlesnake body twitched; then it twitched again.

“This guy is the first I’ve seen this season. In case you are wondering, what I’ve done is not illegal,” Stella said. “In case you think it is. Besides, if you think this is bad…”

Sophie looked at the head. “I thought your husband said he wouldn’t allow you to kill snakes.”

Stella stared at Sophie. “My husband?” She snorted; then she laughed but no sound came out; her chest heaved. “Girl, I’m not married. I had enough of that in my life. Stuff—I have real stuff to do, lots of stuff. I’m right busy. I don’t have time any more to fool with marriage.”

“I thought you were married to Jack.”

Her chest heaved again. “Now that is just plain creepy. The thought of being married to my brother. Ha, ha. I hang out here and keep an eye on him, but I live in Tucson with my cats.”

“Your brother.”

“How do you like my new snake boots?” She lifted a foot and stuck it out in front of her as if she were a child at Easter showing off her patent-leather Mary Janes.

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