Boys and Dancing Snakes

Jim Stewart, aged eight, and his older brother Bobby, aged ten, were usually not on the best of terms. In fact they often had “brother type disagreements”, as their mom was fond of saying. But tonight they were of one mind and it could be described in one word. Scared! They were huddled up in their two man tent pitched out on the back side of their own backyard within sight of their house, but they were scared. They were under attack! By a couple of large snakes! And the boys were so afraid that they couldn’t even yell for help!

It had all began with Jim begging his older brother to camp out with him so he could practice setting up the tent and all the other backyard camping skills he had never had an opportunity to learn. This was important guy stuff! Besides, the annual church campout was coming up at the Mossy Point Baptist Church in a week and he was supposed to participate with the other members of his Sunday School class. And of course, when they had discussed it last Sunday morning he had assured all the other boys that he had camped numerous times already with his brother and dad in the Okefenokee Swamp “many times” and could even “set up my tent blindfolded.” The fact that these lies occurred at church didn’t bother him…what did bother him was that he knew he was clueless and had a lot to learn fast! So with a lot of begging and deal making about doing certain chores for two weeks which Bobby was assigned to on their small farm, he had been able to get Bobby to agree to camping one night with him. Now, just a couple of hours after dark, they were in a mess!

The snakes kept weaving and dancing back and forth outside their tent. As if that wasn’t enough, the wind kept blowing and rattling the drying cornstalks in the nearby field which just made things seem spookier. But worse of all was that the dancing snakes kept striking at the side of their tent! Of course, the boys wanted to crawl out of their trap and run for the house but every time they thought they could make it the dancing snakes would strike the side of their tent again! With the full moon out and the yard security light shining as brightly as it was, the boys were hoping that soon someone would glance out from the backdoor of their house and seeing their situation, come to their rescue.

“Let’s sit back to back so we can watch all sides of the tent, Bobby,” said Jim. “Why?” asked Bobby. "They can only enter through the door and I’ve got that covered with my Barlow knife,” he bravely said. “Okay,” answered Jim in a small quivering not-so-sure voice. “Don’t worry,” Bobby said,” We will be out of this mess soon. I am sure that dad will come check on us before he goes to bed and he’ll kill these stupid snakes.” The boys waited, huddled together, trying as hard as possible to stay away from the flapping sides of their tent trap.

After what seemed an eternity to the two small brothers, they heard the back screen door up at the house squeak as it was opened. “Dad’s coming!” Bobby exclaimed. “Now those blasted ole snakes will get the mess beat out of’em!” Then with almost one voice the two boys yelled, ”Dad! Help us!”

“What’s the problem, boys?” asked their dad, sounding a lot closer already. “Oh my, look at the frogs!” their dad exclaimed, before the boys had time to answer him. “Why ain’t that something, boys? Those old frogs are jumping up against your tent and trying to catch the bugs which are landing on it. Your flashlight is shining through the side of the tent and various insects are landing on the tent trying to get to your light. These frogs are having a feast. Come on out and look at this.”

Both boys quickly crawled out of their tent, neither of them saying much. Their wide eyed glance all around and their dad’s calm demeanor helped them to know that there was obviously no snake within sight. “Frogs, Jim,” stated Bobby, pointing a no longer shaking hand. “Yeah…frogs… how about that, Bobby?” responded the very much relieved Jim. Then, noticing the dancing shadows of the windblown tree nearby, both boys breathed a huge sigh of relief.    

“So, what kind of help do you boys need?” asked their dad. “Oh… uh… well, we were just wondering… since you were walking out from the house anyway… if you would bring us a couple of cokes?” stammered Bobby. “Well,” he answered, ”actually, I was coming to tell you boys that your mom just baked a fresh batch of those chocolate chip cookies ya’ll like. I thought you two might want to come in for a quick snack before bedding down for the night.”

“Yep! Sounds good to me,” called Jim as he took off to catch his already sprinting brother.

“Boys!” laughed their dad as he turned towards the house. “I bet they’ll stay inside and fill up on cookies and not even camp out tonight,” he added to himself.

The wind blew another gust and the shadows danced as the frogs hopped off towards the brightest light they could find to look for another bug meal.

The End