So, I'm walking out the door of my apartment to head to work. My hands are full because I'm carrying a water bottle, my keys and a trash bag. I'm backing out the door, when this little girl runs behind me screaming. I thought, "where is this child's parent?". I turn around from locking my door and that's when I see it. The reason the child was screaming was because a snake was slithering down the hallway. Now, I'm not a fan of snakes, there's something about them that just creeps me out, but I'm not terrified of them either. I expected the little girl to keep running and the snake to make it's way through my hall. So I was getting ready to head back inside and call the apartment offices to alert them a snake was crawling around. However, rather than continuing to run away, the little girl suddenly stopped, blocking the only open path the snake had and just stood there, frozen and starting to cry. I'm on the opposite side of the snake and there are walls all around it, so the snake feels trapped. That's when the situation got worse...
The snake coiled up and that's when it's tail started to rattle. I didn't even know rattle snakes lived around my apartment!! So now, I'm in a bit of a predicament because I have nothing to pin the snake down with, only my trash bag. I quickly formulated the plan that if I threw my trash bag between the snake and the girl, maybe the little girls would run away and the snake would turn the opposite direction. So, I get as close as I dare to the snake and pray my plan works. Rather than the trash bag landing between the snake and the girl, it landed on the snake, only it's head was sticking out. I figured the trash bag was heavy enough to keep the snake stuck for a couple of minutes. So I grabbed the little girl, took her inside my apartment, and called the offices. A minute or so later, two guys showed up with all the tools needed to catch a snake. "Praise the Lord!! This is finally going to be over" was my thought. I left the girl in my apartment with some crayons and walked into the hallway to watch them catch the snake.
However, the guys who were sent to save the day were terrified of snakes. Trapping a snake doesn't get much easier than what was in front of them, but they were freaking out. All the while, the snake was wiggling it's way free. So I grabbed the tools, pinned the snake's head and picked it up with the snake clamp the guys had brought. Turned towards them and asked what they did now. They looked at me like I was crazy, and one of them looked ready to faint. "We don't know what to do, we could just let it go". That idea didn't fly with me. If this rattle snake was gutsy enough to slither into the apartment complex, I didn't like the idea of just "letting him go". So we decided he needed to die. I made the guys show me where they kept the gardening equipment and we pulled out a hoe. It took some convincing to talk one of the guys into chopping off the head. They wanted me to do it, but I couldn't hold the snake and chop it's head off at the same time. My selling line was "Either you kill the snake while I'm holding it, or I'm going to make you hold it", they quickly grabbed the hoe after that.
I threw the snake's head and body into the creek that runs behind my apartment and informed the guys that since they had now witnessed how to trap a snake they were on their own when the next one showed up. I picked up my trash bag, jumped in my car and headed for work. Quite the fun way to start your morning huh?? And I thought my life wouldn't be adventurous until I got to Kenya =)!!
The more I pondered the situation, the more I thought, "Why did I have to do that, I'm the GIRL!!" What happened to rescuing the damsel in distress?? Or participating in the adventure of capturing a snake?? What did the girl have to step up?? It's a picture of the world today, and the church isn't it? Women having to step up because men either don't want to or don't care? I enjoy being the girl. I would have much rather told the guys how much I appreciated them stepping up to the challenge of capturing the snake, rather than doing it myself. I miss knights in shining armor! I know they still exist and I'm so appreciative of the ones I know, they make me feel like a princess and what girl doesn't want to feel like a princess? I just wish there were more of them.
