joseph engraver
05-21-2025, 05:09 AM
It seems as though I dream more often now than I did when I was young. The strange thing is, I dream of people I have never known and places I have never been. , more often than not I dream in vivid color. This is what I remember of last night dream. .
There was a snake hidden in the dead leaves of the old focus tree, it was a bright red and black and from its colors I knew instantly that it was a poisonous and deadly viper,
The tropical sun had risen but an hour earlier, the heat was strong and the old man, accompanied with his servant was standing in the shade of that giant twisted ficus that grew in the yard
It was his patron’s custom to take a walk there every morning to visit his wife’s grave, and he had done so since she died more than thirty years earlier
He did not see the snake until the servant threw his machete into the sand just a footstep behind him. Surprised he leaned on his cane and turned to stare at the quivering rusted blade which had severed the spine of the green eyed Coral viper
With the agility of a man fifty year younger than he was, his 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”, he said as he gave the old man a shake of disapproval with his bony fingers and smiled.
He knew that the man would now buy him a nice meal 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 it was empty, he picked up the viper’s 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 poison flow into the flask. When the last drop fell, he replaced the stopper and threw the head into the nearby sage brush where a colony of red fire ants would soon find it and turn it into a harmless bit of skin and bones. Then he returned the flask to his vest pocket.
As he wiped the blood from his machete he smiled, knowing that the venom would bring him enough money to buy a liter of mescal, a nice meal of tortillas with oysters and, if Dios quieres, a willing woman to sleep with tonight. Yes, it had turned out to be a ´prosperous morning indeed, he thought,
Then he took the old man’s arm to help him home. And that’s when I woke up…….
THE END
There was a snake hidden in the dead leaves of the old focus tree, it was a bright red and black and from its colors I knew instantly that it was a poisonous and deadly viper,
The tropical sun had risen but an hour earlier, the heat was strong and the old man, accompanied with his servant was standing in the shade of that giant twisted ficus that grew in the yard
It was his patron’s custom to take a walk there every morning to visit his wife’s grave, and he had done so since she died more than thirty years earlier
He did not see the snake until the servant threw his machete into the sand just a footstep behind him. Surprised he leaned on his cane and turned to stare at the quivering rusted blade which had severed the spine of the green eyed Coral viper
With the agility of a man fifty year younger than he was, his 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”, he said as he gave the old man a shake of disapproval with his bony fingers and smiled.
He knew that the man would now buy him a nice meal 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 it was empty, he picked up the viper’s 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 poison flow into the flask. When the last drop fell, he replaced the stopper and threw the head into the nearby sage brush where a colony of red fire ants would soon find it and turn it into a harmless bit of skin and bones. Then he returned the flask to his vest pocket.
As he wiped the blood from his machete he smiled, knowing that the venom would bring him enough money to buy a liter of mescal, a nice meal of tortillas with oysters and, if Dios quieres, a willing woman to sleep with tonight. Yes, it had turned out to be a ´prosperous morning indeed, he thought,
Then he took the old man’s arm to help him home. And that’s when I woke up…….
THE END