John Godey - The Snake

Alvis decided to run, and he began to breeze past the joggers, giving them a little grin as be went by. But after one circuit he quit. Too hot, man. He started back to the north, going off the walkways and climbing up a hill whenever he saw one. It was a good feeling being up high. He liked it even better when there was also a lot of trees and bushes, like being hid out in a jungle. He hacked his way out of a jungle, came down into the open, and then ran at a big steep sloping rock. Hey, man, watch this move, up the rock like a fly climb a wall. His sneakers gripped and his momentum carried him to the top. And there, stretched out about a mile long, was a big mother of a snake.

The stone struck the rock in front of the snake, and skittered away. The snake's long body stirred into movement at once, gliding over the rock, taking up its own slack. Its head rose upward on a taut column, and its tongue flicked out. When a second stone landed just in front of it it recoiled for a moment, and then its head rose higher. Its eyes picked up the flight of the third stone while it was still in the air. The stone fell, and almost hit the snake in the arc of its bounce. The snake turned and crawled down the slope of the rock, its scutes pushing back against the irregularities, pressing the long body forward in a powerful twisting movement off the face of the rock and into the underbrush.

Alvis could hardly believe the speed of the snake. It moved like it had a revved-up engine. With a yell, he came out of concealment and ran up the side of the rock. He stopped for a second and took out his piece, then ran down the outer side of the rock in the path the snake had taken.

He stopped again at the bottom and peered into the tangle of brush.

At first he didn't see anything, and then he picked up the snake's movement, and saw it wriggling down under the brush. Got me these great eyes, he thought. He leveled the piece downward at the snake, but it was too tough a shot. Still, it felt good, pointing the piece, and it kept him from getting seared. He tracked the snake with the piece, and then, suddenly, it disappeared. He stared at the brush where he had last seen it.

Not there. Nor was any of the brush moving.

"Be fucked."

He picked up a stone and tossed it down where he had last seen the snake, in a mess of dead branches, vines, last year's brown leaves, the trunk of a rotten tree. The stone landed where he wanted it to, and he watched good, but there wasn't no movement.

"Be fucked."

He thought about it for a second, then edged forward real easy into the brush, moving sidewards, so that if old snake came at him he could swivel around and hightail it for the rock. He had this funny feeling in his feet, but he wasn't gonna let no snake bluff him out. He held the piece pointed downward, with his finger on the trigger. He took a little jump onto the fallen tree trunk. He hunkered down on the tree for a good look all around, but he couldn't see no sign of the snake. Then, just when he was about to stand up, he spotted the hole. It was under the tree, and twigs and like that all around it. No wonder nobody could find old snake. Well, he thought proudly, they don't none of them have the good eyes like Alvis. He laughed gleefully, then clapped his hand over his mouth. Didn't want snake to hear him.

"Gonna ice you, snake."

He stepped down from the tree trunk, one foot at a time, slow, not making a sound. Then he crouched to one side of the hole, and slowly reached around with the piece, curving his arm so the muzzle was pointing right into the hole. He felt real cool, but playing it safe in case old snake decided to pop out suddenly. Laughing softly to himself, he steadied the piece and slowly flexed his finger against the resistance of the trigger.

In the hole, the snake hissed harshly as the light at the entrance to the burrow darkened. Its tongue brought in a strong odour of threat. It pushed forward in a sudden powerful thrust, and surged out through the exit hole.

It struck twice, in rapid succession.

The piece fired into the hole and recoiled, and at the same moment Alvis felt a sharp sting on his neck, and then another sting, and the second time he saw the snake, the head up tall and the mouth wide open. He jumped up and ran backwards a few steps. The snake was watching him, hissing and swaying. He clapped his hand to his neck, and saw there was a little smear of blood on it. Sonofabitch had done bit him, crept out through another hole and done bit him. Motherfucking snake! Shouting, swearing, Alvis backed up a few more feet, raised his piece, and fired twice before the piece jammed. He saw the slugs hit the ground and raise dust and bits of leaves, and he knew he had missed. The snake started to crawl toward him, coming like an express train. He wheeled around and ran for the rock, and he went up it like a fly up a wall. No time to put no fancy moves on. Just keep running or he would get catched up.

The snake pursued as far as the rock and stopped. It held its posture of threat for a while after the figure disappeared over the top of the rock.

Then it returned to the burrow. Its tongue at the opening brought in a disquieting smell, sharp and acrid. The snake didn't enter until the smell grew lighter. It went in cautiously, and didn't relax its tension for a long time.

Got to get me to a hospital, Alvis thought, but not to no honky hospital.

You black, they treat you like shit in them places. One time, some kid on the block OD'd, and they kept him waiting so long that when they got around to him the poor fucker was dead. Uptown, the patients were black, and so were some of the doctors.

So he ran northward through the park, sometimes touching his neck, and feeling okay because it wasn't bleeding no more.

He wasn't running real good, feeling some tired, but he reckoned he wasn't gonna die because he was young, not old like them other ones. He wasn't breathing too good, but shit, you wanna feel great if you bitten by a mile-long crawler?

He stuck to the walkways. They wound around a lot, but it was easier to run on the flat surface. Chest felt funny, and legs going heavy, but he kept running, kept putting 'em down one after another. He could hear the sound of his sneakers slapping down on the pavement. Old sun was up hot now. He felt sleepy and like to lay down. He ran around the Cliff, and tried to turn on more speed. Almost out now. Then the wall was coming up in front of him. He had some trouble getting over it. Legs heavy, heavy.

But finally he cleared it, and was out of the park.

He started to cross Cathedral Parkway and began to stagger. Car coming down at him, have to turn on the speed. But his legs was folding up under him. He heard the car screeching its brakes, coming on big as a house.

At the last second he tried to put on a move, but his legs was no place, and the car hit him and tossed him, and he was dead when he came down.

Converse stood in the center of the North Meadow, facing east. The invisible presence of the sun, hidden beneath the rooftops of Fifth Avenue, backlit the buildings and turned them into cut-out silhouettes. On the Meadow, the parched grass looked gray. Above, the sky was a mottled gray; to the west, it was still dark.

The approach of daylight was reassuring, and it evaporated the remnants of uneasiness Converse had felt when he had entered the park from Central Park West and begun to walk along the eerily deserted walkways. Although he wasn't a particularly scary type, he was aware of the city's legendary perils, and he kept his nerve up kiddingly by imagining himself making a nice move with the Pilstrom tongs, ringing a mugger around the throat, and popping him into the pillowcase. Being careful, of course, not to get bitten.

The tongs and pillowcase were well on the optimistic side, considering the intimidating size of the area he had to cover. Already, in his short walk, he had seen half a dozen heavily overgrown sites that might suit a black mamba as a hiding place. The question was where to start. At the moment, with the rim of the sun just beginning to appear over the buildings, he simply didn't know. The vastness of the park made it all seem hopeless.