An Ominous Hissing

We ran. My bare feet smashed down the perpetually damp grass and it sprang back up behind me almost immediately. Grass on the finca was strong. I once saw a tiny birds nest built atop a single seed stock.

We ran. I remember air so thick you can almost chew it. Visitors said it felt like they were drowning in the humidity. I can run forever in that kind of air.

We ran. We were going to get the horses so we could make the long ride to church. The horses were always near the house except on Saturday. They were somewhere out in the back pasture. Elefante grass as tall as trees hiding them from our searching eyes.

We ran. Halfway across the field we stopped. We listened for the telltale signs of horses hiding. A nicker. The swish of a tail. A restless stomp of hooves.

We listened. All around us there were sounds. There’s life in every square millimeter. Someone told me once that there were over 100 species of cockroach in the jungle. I’ve probably met most of them.

We listened. A hissing sound. Unfamiliar hissing. We looked at each other. Perplexed. I couldn’t place the sound, but it was ominous. A sinister hissing coming from somewhere very close to us.

We looked. The green so intense, so thick, anything could be hiding in it. Sometimes when you hear something unfamiliar in the jungle you realize just how blind you are. Hairs on my neck stood on end.

We looked. William looked down first. A snake coiled in a perfect circle under his bare foot. How could he not have felt it? Its black head was sticking out from under his heal looking directly at me. Mouth wide open. Hissing its anger at being mistreated so harshly.

We ran. Opposite directions faster than we’d ever run before. William ran deeper into the field. He is always responsible the horses were that way. I ran for home.

I waited. I stopped about halfway home in a bare dirt patch near the trail. William got the horses. We walked the rest of the way together.