The car made a turn into the front porch, outside my house's gate. I opened the door, getting ready to do my usual after-work-'How are you?' greeting exchange with Zipper. Before slamming the car door shut, i turned to look at the bush of purple flowers at the lawn next to me. Something didn't feel right.
I looked harder and there, in the bush, something was looking back at me. Because the sun has set, the light has gone off for the day and everything seemed to be a blur. I still didn't know what was odd about the bush. Then somehow something clicked and i blurted loudly "Ohmigosh. A snake!". The thing heard me, turned and slithered back into the bush. Mind you, it was NOT small. It was about 1.5 inches thick!
I stood there for a few seconds as my mind tried to register what my eyes just saw. I noticed its tail slowly creeping back amongst the leaves. It was green, and i believe had a yellow and black stripe running along its sides. Ohmigosh, i just saw a snake and i wasn't at the zoo!
Mom thought i was joking until she saw me standing still for quite a while. Fear overtook me and my body simply didn't know how to response. What the heck are you supposed to do when you see a snake? Sure, you've watched movies on snake encounters but when the real thing happens to you, for the first few moments, all the knowledge you've acquired is as good as none.
So i brought Zipper into the house and closed the doors. I sure as heck wouldn't want any thing slithering into my home! My heart was racing. I did the only thing i knew. I called the DBKL. No answer. Great. Then i dialed 994. Great, it's engaged. Then i contacted the Fire and Rescue Department and praise the Lord, someone finally picked up! They passed my details to the firemen and within a few minutes, a huge fire truck was parked outside my house (very speedy response! i initially thought they wouldn't care).
The firemen started looking around. Neighbours came out to see. I heard people saying "There's a snake? Don't scare me lah". I was praying that they would find it and, although i love animals, kill it. I dislike snakes. Especially ones that are not trapped in cages.
The men came into my garden, looked about and still no sign of the green creature. That moment, i wondered if neighbours thought i was hallucinating because as luck would have it, i was the only one in the entire crowd who saw it. Then after a while, the men and their big truck with the siren lights flashing headed back to wherever they came from.
My heart sank. Why did they leave without catching the snake? They're supposed to overturn every stone, chop down every tree, dig every hole until the thing is found! But of course, you can't go on hunting for something you don't see. Knowing that it could probably still be out there scares the crap out of me.
Oh, what a day today has been! Snake, please go away thank you.
