IGME Files

When I arrived home at past 1 am today (June 26), it’s been my ritual to get the Internet extension wire and have it connected to our phone line.  As soon as I went upstairs, pressed on the lights and opened my pc, the most shocking thing happened as I turned my back — I saw a snake a few feet away from me!!  At first, curiosity got me when I had my belt in my hand, I got near him (or her, or it, god, do I care?!), and let the end of the belt touched its coiling brownish body for a few seconds.  Okay, that was a surprising impulse from me!!  I was supposed to run away, right?

I turned a few steps back, and to everyone’s surprise (maybe the neighbors heard my Oscar-winning, er, FAMAS-acting piece, too), unwillingly woke them up.  In my mind, I knew that my shout was over-exaggerated (like most Filipino acting-pieces are), but it was just merely to call attention.  Then I overheard my mom who was sleeping downstairs with my father (yeah, they sleep downstairs for a few months or so) asked me what was it, then I said, "ahas, ahas!"  I knocked at the door where in that room my two girl cousins are staying and was ready to castigate them if it was just a bad practical joke on me (there’s still a snake toy like that, eh?).  So when I went in and they saw it, they were shocked too.  So we were turning our heads up and down, taking a good look at that rather kind snake.  Ten minutes or so had passed, I’ve been shouting and directing the message to my mother and father to call an emergency so that they get it right away, or if not, the snake might go downstairs and inflict them. 

But no, my mother even had the guts to go upstairs and take a look at the quiet (but deadly?) creature.  She was a few feet away from the snake, and one step that she could have made might mean danger.  So I shouted at her to go back, bec I saw her she wasnt wearing her glasses. 

After that, my cousins and I, who were already enjoying the incredulity of it, the adrenaline rush that goes on with the sight of it, saw the snake slowly turning its head and body and went inside the room where I stay (which was originally my brother’s).  Now, you might think our problem got a little better, but for me, it didnt.  I could not and would not sleep through this even if the snake were inside the room. 

After another ten minutes or so, four people came (including two policemen, one had an armalite).  The one who had an aramlite gun even asked my father if the floor in my room was wood or cement, because he could pull the gun if the snake’s a biggie.  Thank God he never reached that point! A slender man who got a sack entered the room first, and without much drama, the snake went inside the sack where "it" was intended to be. 

Out of gratitude, we prepared merienda to the people who helped us.

While they were eating, I seated beside my mother and turned the situation lighter for me.  She said it’s a "lucky" thing to have a snake (at that time, I was still wiping away my sweat).  I wasnt digging in to what she said until a few monents’ time, we were joking about it when mom said I should set my ways and go to  Church (okay, it’s a private joke among us because I dont really go to Church since time immemorial).  For those not in the know, I dont believe in organized religion; I’m a "spiritual" person who doesn’t have to parade my faith on Sundays only, or where the need arises.

I’m ending this with a still surprising thought.  Where did the snake come from?  Ten minutes before I arrived, my cousin went to the other rest room which is found at the back terrace.  She never felt any snake in any of her foot.  So, where did "it" crawl in all its glory for me to see?  I could only surmise the only possible entry point "it" could have entered was in my original room opposite to the room where the snake entered.  In my room, the windows have some parts where they don’t have glass on.  But where it could have originated from, neither my family nor myself know. 

I thank the three-foot snake for being "kind" to me.  If you know me that well, you’d have enough reasons to have stung me, but you didnt. 

I am now living my fourth (or is it fifth?) LIFE.  And I thank God for it (for more than four times!!)!