Slithering Intruders

 

Growing up in the islands, we raised a few goats and sheep, and chickens as many of our neighbors did. Others had other livestock such as cows, donkeys, and other animals. Living in the tropics one would encounter different insects and reptiles such as iguanas, manicou, and others.  In addition, we enjoy the intermittent crow of the rooster and the beautiful birds that fly overhead and bees and butterflies that flitter from flower to flower.

 One evening my mother and most of my brothers and sisters went to a function. I cannot remember why my youngest brother and I did not go to that event, but we were home alone. As night was drawing near, I asked my brother if he can sleep next to me until the rest of the family returned. He agreed, and while we were sleeping,  a snake crawled into the house, onto the bed we were sleeping in and lay between us.

Click Here 

Apparently, the snake might have been cold and looking for some warmth. When my mother returned she quietly woke us up not wanting to disturb the intruder. She in turn did not want to kill the snake laying between us, since in doing so one of us might get hurt. In trying to get us away from that reptile, it was disturbed and went quickly on its way without hurting any one of us. We can quote the text of scripture Psalms 34:7 which says " The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescue them."

My oldest brother's first child, a daughter, practically grew up with us. I have to say she was fearless. She was smart, love to read, and very observant. She never allowed anything to prevent her from doing what she wanted to do. I hardly ever saw her get flustered about anything.

One evening we were all sitting in the living room, chatting about different things but my niece was at the corner of the couch reading a book. After a while, she went to use the bathroom, after all that's a normal thing to do. The thing is, when she came back out, she told us, quite calmly, that there was a snake in the bathroom and she proceeded to sit down and continue reading her book.  Since she said it in such a calm manner. no one believed her. One of my curious sisters went to verify what my niece said. There was a huge difference in my sister's reaction compared to my niece's. My sister screamed hysterically that the snake was coiled around the bottom of the toilet bowl. My niece looked up from her reading and wondered why that type of behavior. We believed all that screaming scared the snake off and it went on its merry way.

We had fruit trees growing around the house. One such fruit was the custard apple. A couple of the branches of this tree were touching the bedroom window and it was the intention of one of my brothers to cut off those branches. Before that was done, though, we had another encounter with those intruders that were mentioned before. My niece was in that bedroom reading a book on the lower section of the double-decker bed. The window was opened. ( We had hanging windows). The branch of that custard apple tree was practically on the inside of the window. While reading, my niece felt something touch her and she brushed it off, thinking it was a leaf from the tree, and continued reading. She felt it again and turned and saw that it was a snake. She got up and told the rest of us about it. I went to that bedroom and saw it crawled away. My brother immediately cut off the branches of the tree that were touching the house. We give thanks that there are no venomous snakes in Tobago.

 I admired the personality of my niece, she had a gentle, unassuming manner. She did not speak a lot and this just shows how different we all are and how we react in certain situations. Even though we grew up in the same home our personalities are not all the same because life is just like that.