Three Snakes in a Dream.

Last night as I dreamed, a large snake suddenly and heavily dropped its body onto my shoulders. I looked straight up to find the snakes origin, and then around at the air; a cotton haze, engulfing  the trees and grass of the darkest green.  I struggled to get control of the animal, not wanting it to get the advantage. The snake, a large diamond patterned python, was close to ten feet long. My hand was searching the coiling monster for it’s head, with hope I might locate it without the beast latching on to me. I could feel that it didn’t intend to hurt me, but I wanted to be careful , and I struggled under it’s weight to find the head.

After some maneuvering, I was able to locate the head and hang on to the creature. It began to coil and squeeze, and I knew that I had to find this snake a location where he would be safe and leave me alone. I felt that it would be safer in the canopy of the trees, having come from there, so I tried to drag the cool creature to a tree where I could encourage it to climb, somehow transferring it off of me on the lowest branch of the nearest tree. The snake’s skin was a kind of metallic olive and oxide brown mixture of colors and its muscles tightened as it resisted my assistance. With some coaxing, it finally began an assent up a tree and let go of me.

When the snake began to climb and I was certain he had made it to safety, I turned to go. To my horror, something was trapped under the tire of my car. I crept closer until I could see what it was, and I realized that it was the severed tail of the snake which had become wedged between the pavement and the tire treads. I remember while dragging the snake there was a sudden obstacle, but I pulled harder and the snake came free. It was not until that moment that I realized I had pulled the snake free of his tail. This concerned me gravely and I looked up into the tree canopy to see if the snake was visible.

At that moment, my attention turned to another much larger python slithering past in the grass. I tried to find a higher spot to stand, but the snake seemed to be on a mission and I froze, uncertain of his intent. All twenty feet of it slithered away through the grass to the far end of the yard. Then its head turned and it came straight back in a line, six inches to the left of where it had turned,  as if following some predetermined course.  As it moved away the second time I intended to get closer, and this time it did not turn or divert from the straight line. It continued past he edge of the grass back to the thickest of the vegetation growing there.

Then without warning an even larger snake some, thirty-five feet long and nearly ten inches in diameter came from behind me and began to follow the same course as the previous snake, back and forth. But this time the snake was on its back moving even more slowly. I could see the head of this giant, about twenty inches long and twelve inches across, moving upside down through the grass as if it knew it had to crawl this way and would not divert from its course until whatever it needed to do had been accomplished.

I could see the whiteness of the skin on its face and scaly belly. I wanted to know if it needed help, but I could see that despite closed eyes, it seemed quite content to slither slowly on its back.

~Eric Nagel