A Tale from the Hills by Terry Hayden Read Free Book Online

seat’s lid was down so that none of the rats could escape. One thing for certain, either the snake, or the rats or both would scare the crap out of old lady Boatwright.
    Back in August when the boys began gathering their creepy little zoo, they had big plans for its unsavory animals. Now that the opossums were gone, and the rats were distributed, the only things left were snakes and the rotten eggs. They had already thrown several of the eggs at houses, and toilets, and churches, and the school house, but there were still a lot of them left.
    The snakes were aggravating because of all of the jars. Jay suggested that since they had so many pockets on their coats, why not put the snakes in them. Sam was a little bit squeamish about the idea, but he dared not let the other boys know. Reluctantly he went along with the group. The boys began dividing up the jars. Each boy tried to pick the same ones that they supplied to the project. Since they had kept track of the little monsters for the last three months, each boy pretty well recognized his snakes.
    The boys did the best that they could to distribute the snakes and the rotten eggs in their pockets. Most of the jacket pockets had flaps which helped to keep the snakes inside. But regardless of flaps, the boys spent much of their time pushing the snakes back inside their pockets. As they walked down the dirt roads, and lanes, and railroad tracks of their community, some of the snakes were escaping into the darkness. But there was so many of them that it did not really matter.
    Jay kept scratching his leg. It felt just like a briar was sticking him through his pants. He tried to ignore the sensation, but he kept on feeling the briar sticking him. In desperation he put his hand inside of his pocket to try and find the bothersome briar. It almost instantly stuck him in the finger. He emptied his pockets and out came two eggs andthree of the small garner snakes. He did not think anymore about it and the scratching sensation stopped.
    The boys put the snakes in mailboxes, in buckets, window sills, flower boxes, and anywhere else that they could. They threw eggs at everything from road signs to cats and dogs. Cows and horses were bombarded too. When their rounds were almost over, they were approaching the footbridge below the railroad trestle. They broke eggs everywhere, making the old footbridge as slippery as wet glass. The snakes slithered away in every direction, with some of them falling into the treacherous water below the bridge. The Halloween outing was for all practical purposes, over. It was time to go home.
    When the boys reached the old barn, they decided to get to school early on Monday morning. They would hide in the bushes behind the toilets to watch the excitement that was sure to take place. By the time that Jay and James got home, Jay’s leg was starting to burn and ache. He thought that the briar must have stuck him several times. His finger felt like a bee sting, and both his leg and his finger were swollen. He went to bed because he was so sleepy that he could hardly keep his eyes open.
    Jay and James shared a bedroom. Several times during the night James heard Jay talking crazy shit in his sleep. Finally he told Jay to shut the Hell up. There were no other sounds or commotion for the rest of the night. The next morning James awoke first, as usual. He thought that his brother was being unusually quiet. He walked over to Jay’s bed and if he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget the look on Jay’s face.
    His pale blue face was swollen out of proportion and contorted as if he was about to scream. When their parents removed the covers from his dead body, they discovered ten or twelve snake bites on Jay’s leg. They did not even notice the bite on his finger.
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    When Alice awoke on Monday morning, she was very happy and excited. She could hardly wait to get to school and find out the results of the Halloween contest. She slipped quietly out of bed,