Looking at the Snakes at the Zoo
Photo credit: nasmac (flickr.com)
“He could kill you, you know.”
Molly rolled her eyes as she stared at the green tree python. He (she? it? The snake seemed to be a male, or at least, Molly preferred him to be) was sitting very still, his slender, long, emerald green body wrapped around a branch of the small tree in his habitat. But his eyes were staring right at her — yellow eyes, with black vertical slits for pupils.
“I think he can see me,” she said to Frank, who had moved on to look at a much less impressive display of Vietnamese mossy frogs.
“It’s mirrored glass,” said Frank. “Like I said. If these animals knew you were here, they’d be trying to kill you.”
He walked back over towards her. “And besides,” he said, pointing his finger at the snake. “Look, his tongue isn’t even out. That’s how snakes sense what’s going on around them. If he knew you were there, he’d either be watching you with all of his senses or striking at the glass.”
Frank tapped on the glass roughly. The snake didn’t seem to notice. “See?” Frank said. “Completely unaware of his environment.”
Frank glided over to the komodo dragon exhibit as Molly continued to stare at the python. Frank was right, of course — the python couldn’t see her. But she still felt a strange connection with this creature. There was a certain beauty to his form, and to his color; a monstrous nature concealed by an exotic exterior. Molly pulled out her camera, and tried to snap a few pictures, but she knew that none of them would remind her of the wonder of seeing it before her, safely tucked away in its own little world, keeping them both blissfully ignorant of the relationship they might have if she had stumbled upon him in the wild.
Writing Scraps | SeanJJordan | 
January 2, 2010 12:42 am
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By Katie, January 5, 2010 @ 8:00 pm
I love this one. I was thinking of the long-nosed snake while reading it, haha!