Snakes Falling from the Sky

I’ve never quite been able to forget this story. I wish I could.

Abigail was visiting friends in Tennessee. There were games and mild drinking— a small gathering of friends determined to make the best of miserable hot weather. As the festivities waned, Abigail went outside with a few others to watch lightning bugs and spill the tea.

She wore a light maxi dress, her shoulders exposed to the heavy night air. The humidity had settled into the darkness, her dress so heavy with sweat she almost shivered. Someone in the party told a joke—a ring of laughter erupted. Abigail remembered closing her eyes for just a second and then…the sound of a branch breaking.

Out of nowhere, she felt it—the heaviness of what felt like a rope around her neck. She jumped in surprise, the weight of it throwing her off balance.

She screamed.

Whatever had fallen from the sky had wrapped itself around her. She moved forward toward her friends in alarm, her heart racing. She registered the look of sheer horror on their faces, their expressions illuminated by the glow of party lights.

They backed away from her. One friend shrieked and bolted back into the house. Abigail brought her hands to the thick rope and now recognized its girth as the brownish body of a coiled snake. She froze in terror. Almost reflexively, she grabbed it by its middle, so close she could hear its hiss. Just for a moment, she looked into the soulless bright, black eyes just as it angled its head towards her.

She seized it up over her head and hurled it as far away as she could into the Tennessee night.

There are few things that I can imagine more terrible than a snake randomly falling out of the sky and wrapping itself around my neck.

When I first heard the story, I thought for a moment that it might be better just to die than to have such an awful thing happen