The Death of Snake

Just before dawn several animals had gathered around the waterhole. They were talking about the death of Snake the previous evening, of which Cane Toad had just informed them.

“I was, as you all know, a lifelong friend of Snakes” he continued in his pompous way, and so happened to be the first to come across his death tracks just as the sun was going down. I could see that he had finally slithered his last.”

Kangaroo put her paws over her bright sweet eyes in a display of shock, and couldn’t help but think of Snakes desirable territory, and of how much grass was there for the nibbling, without the fear of Snake about underfoot.

Goanna also considered the greater availability of baby rats in this same territory, as she tutted gently, and inquired after Snakes’ widow.

“Oh, she is receiving all the animals in the proper way”, Toad continued. “I myself hopped past his prostrate corpse after observing the tracks, seeing as she hissed to me to be sure and have a good look at how terribly he had suffered.”

“He suffered, you say?” gasped Crow, wondering if perchance Snakes entrails had spilled out of his long body, and were there for the taking.

“Most Awfully! He writhed and he languished for three whole days without a glurp of water or a chance to curl up in peace,” Cane Toads relatives croaked in chorus, having heard the account from Cane Toad and been most relieved that it was not they who had died, especially not in agony.

It is true to say that all the animals, whilst audibly croaking, crawking,chittering,howling and squawking their condolences, were a little embarrassed to find that they felt a light and airy sense of joy that they were still alive, and not dead and stinking like poor Snake.

Snake himself had been as alive as they were, and oblivious to the very idea of death, only a few short days ago.

His life had been an illustrious one, by the standards of desert taipans. Despite poor beginnings in a time of drought he had by great natural stealth and viciousness of temperament risen rapidly to become one of the regions most feared and successful predators. His ability to immobilize his unwitting prey through a cultivated death stare was unparalleled. Then it would be a simple step to inflict the envenoming strike, and proceed to engorge himself. Subsequently he would curl up in the invaded burrow or nest, and proceed to sleep- and digest – for several days.

The arrival of a slender, sinuous she snake by the waterhole one lovely Spring day had diverted Snakes self interests for a time. Certainly she possessed the most desirable shade of copper in her fine scales, and hissed at him in a soothing way. After several tentative meetings under the old river gum the courtship advanced itself, and they mated happily. Indeed, for a time Snake believed himself to be even more successful- and happy- than he had been before. She was an amorous and attractive partner for such a king of snakes as he!

However it wasn’t long before her loving attentions changed completely. She seemed to be entirely preoccupied with herself, and the eggs that she was laying in their burrow, under the river gum. They certainly had everything they needed-access to water, a wide ranging prey-rich territory, and formidable reputations. So he left her to her irritable self and slithered off to bask amongst the grasses, idly tracking a large extended family of mice.

Soon afterwards, he encountered cantankerous Kookaburra in the old gum above where the mating had taken place. He had been spying out a nest of magpie eggs when Kookaburra landed right by his head, laughing loudly. In great fright Snake had leapt from the top of the tree, badly bruising his abdomen on a rock as he landed. He had slithered desperately down the nearest hole, terrified of Kookaburra’s large beak. As it happened, this hole was the burrow that held the clutch of his mate’s eggs, now starting to hatch.

Here he lay in pain for days, while his vicious and ignorant young slithered over his swollen tender body, on their way to the great wide world. They were full of vim and vigour, feeling as on-top-of-the-food-chain as could be!

Snake felt their young bodies, and tried to curl up tightly in order to sleep but his that tightly coiled position was painful. So he stretched out long and limp, letting his tail hang out of the burrow, but then couldn’t rest for terror of it being seized upon by Kookaburra, or even Dingo, should she be lurking about near the waterhole. Indeed, there was no position that now felt comfortable and so Snake writhed and groaned, and fell to feeling terribly sorry for himself. How could such a powerful predator such as he end up in this pitiful state? He could not reach the waterhole, and his belly was empty of digestible food, now only distended with a hideous swelling.

He attempted to swallow one of the remaining eggs, but it hurt him inside and he had to disgorge it.

On the third day Snake heard a cawing and a crowing in the outside world and knew that Death was not far from him. In fact, several crows had arrived in the branches above him, having caught a whiff of his rotting body.

Snake thought of his fine life ending soon and in this ignominious way.

I am hanging by a thread!

These thoughts soon overwhelmed his visceral torment with a horror of soul like black curtains drawn in wartime, like the yawning of an abyss that one is falling into.

Oh! I don’t understand! How is it possible that this is happening to me? This is not the fate of one such as I, there has to be some mistake!

If Snakes could pray, he would have prayed, but to which Divine Being? What was the point, when all he wanted was right here in his desert territory? Then he remembered the joys that had been, of the warming sun, and comforting grasses to bask upon; of fresh rainwater in the crannies of the rocks, the pleasure of the hunt and the kill; of his own fine reflection, gleaming back at him from the waterhole. He even thought about courtships’ sweet entanglement, before She-Snakes’ embitterment drove him away.

In the darkness of the burrow that night he sensed a skittish movement along his fevered body. It came closer and revealed itself to be a young water rat. Snake tried to hiss a warning but only a ‘hz’ came out of his dry mouth. His tongue was pathetically adhered to the roof of his mouth. Water rat edged closer, and finally spat something into Snakes mouth. It was a dribble of water. Water Rat returned many times that night, and spat water down Snakes mouth. This brought such great comfort that Snake, who had never wept, now wept in the way that snakes do, by ‘hzzing’ almost inaudibly but constantly. Water Rat understood.

Finally Snakes eyes closed for the last time and his ‘hz’ died out. Death had arrived.

Water Rat was tired and made his way slowly out of the burrow and down to the waterhole to drink himself, and retire for the day. There he heard the other animals beginning to arrive and so he swam quietly away to the other side, crept into his burrow and went to sleep.

Nb. this story is written as a response to or retelling of Tolstoys' 'The Death of Ivan Illyich'