Saturday, February 2
The "rolinha" dove made a nest and layed eggs inside
the trellis in the veranda where Ginny had tended to the blue flowered morning
glory vine. Niece, nephew, grand-nephews and grand-niece were overjoyed. They checked
on the progress of the eggs, fed them grapes and loaves of bread, appreciated
the daily visits of the "rolinho", the he-dove. In the last day of their stay at the beach the
eggs hatched. Isn't life great!?
Family left the next morning and we were overjoyed with the silent
time to cook a little shrimp, a little rice, a sprinkling of some lemon on
hearts of palm, cold, cold beer. We had
been there for a week now, still one week to go before we had to stand in line
once again!
Then there came the snake, a meter long, gray, round headed,
thin tailed.
"No problem",
says I. "Don't
kill it, it is not poisonous, I KNOW!"
I had to convince them all. They all wanted to kill that
snake, poisonous or not, because to their eyes, it deserved to be killed. To my eyes, it had round eyes, a tail rounded
at the end, no sharpness to its demeanor. I was sure of it, it was not a
poisonous snake.
We went to check on the status of the newborn. We were just
about to place a mirror near the nest to see the birds. I had just removed a bunch of offending
grapes and a huge stale bun from the nest.
The snake met us eye to eye.
She snatched the birds right there. No broom would stop her, she was seriously committed. She had waited for two days hidden in the yard, at the corner of that trellis, biding her time, waiting for the children to leave.
So we went to the beach to tell the story. Business was very
slow, we the only customers sitting outside the Italian restaurant by the water.
Chatting away with Monica and Renata. Gordon
had baked some ciabatta and with some of the leftover dough, he had baked some bread
sticks.
Fernando, the roofer, came by and told us these thin gray
snakes are the very, very dangerous "preguicosa", the lazy one, and
so we should proceed very carefully around her.
"Oh, great!"
I think, "and I though it was just a
garden snake!"
Vilma, the cook joined us to tell us that this snake is "the
very, very dangerous "cipó" snake. For sure, it is the infamous ‘'vine"
snake!"
She tells us an uncle of hers died suffocated by a "cipó"
snake, right inside his house. They make themselves very, very thin like a
pencil and then wrap themselves around your neck and suffocate you while you
sleep, "while you're not even paying
attention."
According to Vilma, all snakes are to be killed. All snakes
are very dangerous. Most will jump at you. Like scorpions, they will kill on
contact. We were not talking about scorpions, but out of the blue Vilma tells us
she had a brother who was married to a woman who died from the bite of a
scorpion.
"But", I
said, "scorpions, yes, but not all
snakes are dangerous?! You mean to say all snakes will kill you? "
"Yes",
said Vilma with absolute faith. "I
have no doubt, whatsoever!"
Then she did something extraordinary. She went to the kitchen for a while and came back
with one of the bread sticks carefully painted as a snake. Perfect scales,
eyes, fangs, this adorable and dangerous blue and tan magic marker painted
bread stick snake.
She fondled her stick.
"I named this one
"Augustostrictor", after my boyfriend!"
She had no doubts. All
snakes needed to be killed.
Meaipe, 2006
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