Things That Bang

She undulated and left her home. Her movements were silent and went unnoticed as she slithered through the thick bushes, the planted pots, the heated stones of the driveway and through the open doors into the cool interiors of the human home.

He watched her enter and followed her as she made for darker cooler interiors- the bathroom. Her beautiful light brown scales caught the rays of the rising sun from the window before she went and coiled herself behind the frosted plastic bucket.

The youngest of the family members entered the bathroom. He peed in the pot. His mother screamed “Did you put the seat up before peeing?!” The five year olds tongue snuck out between his teeth and his eyes glimmered with surprise. His mother had caught him without even being there. She was all knowing. He flushed and scampered out of the bathroom. The snake went unnoticed and so did the one who watched the snake.

The bathroom door shut with a bang and a childlike voice could be heard demanding Gobi Paranthas. Adult voices responded. The male voice said something and the female laughed. The little boy cackled and whooped. A happy family he told the resting snake that ignored him.

She hid her head between the smooth twists of her form and felt his loneliness as he watched over her. He garnered no sympathies from her. It wasn’t in her nature to empathize. She lived to procreate and to eat those delicious rats that were becoming few in number. The rains were coming, the rats were dying and there were few places left to live in moist cool solitude.

Here too, there was no peace to be found. She would have to move. The noisy human had proven the place was not a conducive habit but where would she go? It would be best to wait, even if only for a while. The cool stones beneath her lulled her to sleep.

He stayed with her for she was his brethren in nature. He lodged against the wall and waited for the next human to enter. It was the blurry eyed father who next walked in. He ran a hand over his rough unshaven cheeks and began to shave.
The snake went unnoticed. The father didn’t take a bath. It was Sunday after all.
There was no need to hurry.

“Anil?! Where are you?”

“Coming! What yaar? Can’t I even shave in peace?” The father of the five year old yelled back and left the bathroom.

There was more yelling. He heard them fight as did the snake catch the vibrations who was rudely woken from her siesta.

“Why do you always go to the bathroom when I lay the table?” she yelled
The father yelled back “Woman! This isn’t the army. I can go to the bathroom whenever I want to.”

They fought on and the snake raised her head. It was time to leave.

He nodded. Wise decision. The family could drive anyone up the wall. He would know he had suffered them since the damn house was built on his land and he was forced to live with them.

The bathroom door was left ajar and she began to make her silent trek whence she came from. He followed her till the thresh hold of the house. She slithered out of the open doorway. Out into the open where nature was distorted and pillaged by hungry humans.

She didn’t look back. Why would she? He turned back to be in the midst of those whose warmth never touched him. The five year old ran through him and he felt a slight tremor in his ether and he resumed his form.

Damn humans, he muttered and watched them eat their Gobi Paranthas.