I seems as though I dream more often now than I did when I was young. The strange thing is, I dream of people have never known and places I have never been. And, I more often than not I dream in color. This is what I remember of last night dream.
Joseph Engraver
A Prosperous Morning
Although the sun had risen but an hour earlier, the heat was strong and the old man accompanied with his servant were standing in the shade of a giant Fichus tree that grew in the yard of his hut on the edge of the desert. It was his custom to take a walk there every morning to visit his wife’s grave, as and he had done so since she died more than thirty years ago. He did not see the snake until the servant threw his machete into the sand just a footstep behind him. He leaned on his cane and turned to stare at the rusted blade which had severed the spine of the green eyed cobra that was hidden in the fallen leaves of the Fichus tree. With the agility of a man fifty year younger than he was, the servant pulled the blade from the ground and deftly cut of the head of the two meter s long reptile. “Your eyes have become lazy boss”, as he gave the old man a shake of disapproval with his boney fingers .and smiled. As he knew that the man would now buy him a nice meal of turtle eggs, with anchovies, along with a pint of cold dark beer.
He took out of his worn cotton vest a flask of water, removed its stopper and gave it to the old man to drink. When the bottle was empty he picked up the head and forced the flask under the fangs, and then pressed his thumbs into the sides of the head next to the green eyes and watched the stream of yellow venom flow into the flask. When the last drop fell into the flask he replaced the stopper and threw the head into the nearby brush where the colony of red fire ants would soon find it and turn it into a bit of harmless bit of skin and bones. Then he returned the flask to his vest pocket.
As wiped the cobra´s blood from his machete he smiled, knowing that the venom would bring him enough money to buy a liter of mescal and a woman to sleep with tonight. Yes, it had turned out to be a very prosperous morning indeed, he thought, as he took the old man’s arm to help him home.
THE END