I came face to face with a rattlesnake that summer when I was 10 years old. Of course, I knew all about rattlesnakes, having seen lots of them, and knew to watch out for them ‘cuz Mama and Daddy and Grandmother and me lived on a cotton farm out in far West Texas. It happened at the end of summer, when the cotton bolls were still hard and green, and before the big combines began to roll up and down the rows. A bunch of aunts and uncles from my mama’s side came on a Sunday afternoon, bringing roasts, chickens, cakes and pies. And it was just like every other time they came – the men standing outside in a group talking about rain and rabbits in the fields. They gathered in the shade of the windmill- sometimes bending down to draw pictures in the hard-packed red dirt of our yard. And in the kitchen, which smelled like fried chicken and Mama’s chocolate pie, the women were talking and laughing and pouring the tea over crackling ice in glasses. The table, sitting in the middle of our blue and gray linoleum floor was covered with platters of fried chicken and hunks of roasts nestled among mounds of carrots and potatoes, along with bowls overflowing with buttery mashed potatoes, green beans and lettuce and tomato salads – all waiting for the blessing. Which was all well and good except that on mama’s side all my cousins were already teenagers who escaped these get-togethers as much as they could.
So at this particular family reunion, as usual, I was the youngest and only girl cousin. Feeling a little sorry for myself, I wandered into our small, dark living room to stand by Grandmother’s rocking chair and traced a line in the broad wooden armrest with my finger.
“”You hungry, Carol Mae?”
Grandmother’s gravelly voice was soft and tinged with snuff.
“Naw – I just wish there was somebody to play with.”
Grandmother put her arm around me and hummed deep in her throat. I hummed with her a little bit and felt better.
“OK, I’m going to my playhouse now.”
“Uh hummm..” .
I heard her rocker creaking on the wooden floor as I banged the back screen door. I was feeling pretty good as I ran past the clump of men- talking really loud now, toward the back of the big red barn. I squinted my eyes at the sun shimmering over the tall green cotton plants in the back field, and coming around the corner of the barn, I could see my four boards leaned up against the back wall. I smiled thinking of the cozy room I had made underneath the boards – with a mud table covered with a dishtowel I snuck out from the kitchen. I felt safe and happy just looking at it – like I felt when I read the book in the library about the shepherd girl Heidi who had a tiny hut high in the Swiss Alps.
I bent down to crawl into my hut, and I came face to face with a large brown and grey rattlesnake, coiled on Mama’s dishtowel. I just stared at his small bright eyes. I remember thinking that I should be scared but I wasn’t. I was surprised that I felt just as calm as could be as I breathed and stayed perfectly still. I thought about talking to him but it was like there was a silent signal between us. Seems like we sat there like that for a long time and then I carefully inched back from under the boards, watching the snake – who was as still and silent as me. I sat outside my hut for a bit, wondering what to do. Finally, I walked over to the men who were arguing even louder now. I plucked at Daddy’s khaki sleeve,
“Daddy, there’s a snake in my playhouse.”
When he didn’t pay me any mind, I went in the house.
“Mama, there’s a snake in my playhouse.”
Mama stopped laughing with Aunt Hattie Belle. After a minute, she ran out the door, yelling for Daddy. Everybody else went out too leaving just me and Grandmother in the house.
“Grandmother, there’s a snake in my playhouse”,
I whispered as I tiptoed into the living room and stood by her chair. Her lip twitched and she looked at me and smiled, her gold tooth twinkling.
“I don’t want to watch.”
“Then stay here with me.”
I sank down by her side, my face laying on her big stomach. And Grandmother rocked and the wooden floor creaked.
And to this day, I can’t tell you if that snake got away.