Childhood, by Anonymous

From MemoryArchive

Who: Myself
What: Childhood
When: Years ago
Where: New England

Sunlight cast through my window, beckoning me to come outside and play. I arose from my bed, and was quickly outside. It was a still summer's day, so I roamed through the shade of the forest nearby. I knew these woods, they were mine and I knew everything about them. As I walked through the browned leaves, I caught a movement in the corner of my eye. Separating my backyard from the forest, in classic New England style, was a small wall made of large flat stones. On one of these stones i saw what beckoned my eye. A snake! Thoughts darted through my mind, what fun I would have, my own little snake pal to play with! So I darted over to the wall, to get close to my new friend and introduce myself. He however seemed shy, and slithered his way beneath one of the flat stones on the wall. He was a garden snake, dark and devilish with a yellow stripe down his side, I knew he wasn't dangerous. So I lifted the stone he hid beneath, and saw my new friend, I had decided to name him jim, he seemed like a jim, and next to jim, I saw a small cotton mouth, the same size as jim. Jim seemed to have run from me into the jaws of this cottonmouth. I slammed the stone downwards and crushed the cottonmouth. Jim was hurt, hurt badly. I took him in my hands and he wrapped his tail around my finger. I sat with jim until the sun went down. The next day I took jim and buried him at the base of the stone wall. I don't live at that house anymore, but I think I'd like to visit him now.