How Females Deal With Snakes
Well, the other day, I was not feeling real well since some kind of bug seems to have hit us all. Our students are gone for a short vacation, and all the men in the family were also gone, so just the little girls, Sarah and I were holding down the fort at home.
I was looking for something quiet to do since I hate to be idle, even when my head hurts, so I went into my bedroom to get my drawing book, which was on the shelf next to my bed. (Our beds are on the floor) I grabbed my books, and then noticed that my foot was touching something strange on the bed, so I looked down....
"SNAKE!!!!!" I yelled...and while I was yelling, I was also beating a hasty retreat onto higher ground. Sarah and I looked at each other as the snake slithered under the pillow on my bed. What were we to do with nobody to rescue us? All the snakes in Thailand are deadly...either they will poison you to death, or at least give you a near heart attack, one or the other.
Right about then my little girls came to my rescue. Esther grabbed an iron bar and put it in my hand. Hannah ran to get the long machete, and Marybeth ran to get a hoe, while I watched the bed to see if the snake moved any. It didn't...it was under the pillow.
As soon as we were all armed, I came up with a plan of action. "Esther, use the hoe to move the pillow, Marybeth, you hold the machete and start chopping if you see the snake, Hannah and Destiny, go sit with Sarah in the living room."
Destiny then piped up, "I like the snake, I want to see the snake!" I quickly informed her that she cannot like snakes, that they would hurt her, and told her in no uncertain terms to get back to the living room and stay with Sarah. She meekly obeyed...I am not sure if her ready compliance was because of what I said, or because mommy does not usually hold iron bars over her head wildly looking around for deadly snakes to come crawling out from under pillows.
Next, I turned to the job at hand. Esther was lifting my pillow with the hoe, and then and there we all saw the snake, curled up comfortably on my pillow, but with a rather surprised expression on his face at having been thus disturbed. Esther ran screaming out of the room, Marybeth screamed and started to bolt, and I added my shrieks from my safe perch. Then I reminded Marybeth that she was not supposed to run away, but club the thing quick. No stranger would have dared to approach the house at that minute since we sounded like a bunch of madmen, screaming, yelling, and astonishing the poor snake who had thought that we were quite sane a few minutes before.
So, Marybeth grabbed the hoe away from Esther, since it had a longer handle, and started hitting the snake madly, sending dirt and sand from the dirty hoe flying...not to mention pieces of snake. She killed it all right...there was not much left when she was done. My bed was not in all that great of shape either.
Isn't that just like Satan though? He hides where we are most comfortable, waiting to kill us when we least expect it. But, as long as we have the hoe of faith, we can conquer that old serpent. He is a defeated foe!