Snakes on a Plane

[No. I do not wish to frighten you parents with this set of news; it is purely to inform you of the accumulation of snakes. However we are now becoming immune to our fear of them. This, I assure you, is a good thing. Plus there’s like, none, now because it’s cold. So don’t worry. (Winters coming… ergh. I’ve got to get out my thermals.)]

On Sunday the 3rd of October 2010 (Nepal 2067) a black with green bellied snake was found slithering around in Jane Eldershaw, Bee Tapp and Jennifer Calacoci’s tree house bedroom looking for (what they had hoped was) mice.

The snake was found after a joke was made my Miss Tapp after the sighting of a previous snake earlier that week; another black with a green belly, was found by a Miss Rachel Finch wrapped around the wooden roof planks in her bedroom.

“I was just lying in Suza and my bed, eating my mars bar”, announced Miss Finch, “when I looked up and saw the snake. So I very quickly hid my mars bar so my Nepali sisters wouldn’t see it, and ran from the room.”

Miss Finch was commended by Miss Tapp earlier that day for having stashed her mars bar first, to prevent questions being asked by her Nepali family before escaping the snake.

The events of the later sighting, seen by Miss Calacoci, occurred approximately an hour after she arrived back at her Nepali house, as she sat on the balcony, exhibiting her collection of Bhaktapur items.

As Miss Eldershaw and Miss Tapp excitingly examined the few (2 bags full – few, being slightly controversial) items Miss Calacoci had to display, book thumps were heard upon the floor.

“As we (Eldershaw, Tapp and Calacoci) heard the thumps on the floor,” recalled Miss Tapp with a slight anxious, yet compelling tone, “We automatically thought aloud; ‘Moosa’ (mouse). We were suddenly settled and relaxed by knowing the source of the noise. Immediately, I was unsettled again by the recollection of the snake in the house next door, so I relayed my gradually increasing worry to Jen and Jane.”

The place where the sound occurred was then investigated by Miss Calacoci. The snake was found almost immediately. Miss Calacoci continues; “I distinctly remember opening the door and quickly peeking into the room, expecting to see only sprawled books on the floor the moosa left behind. I guess it was this expectation that led to my hurried and gob smacked second glance that led to the sighting of a slowly slithering green two metre, not thin, snake on the floor.”

Miss Calacoci then hurriedly deserted her items as she instructed very clearly to everyone on the verandah to “Get out!”

“I didn’t believe her at first. I thought it merely a cruel joke, as she very well knows I’m not very good with snakes – in the slightest” says Miss Tapp.

Inevitably, Miss Tapp and Miss Calacoci hurriedly proceeded down the stairs and out the door, whereas a brave Miss Eldershaw stayed upstairs.

Miss Eldershaw witnessed the account from the upstairs balcony with her Nepali sister Sabina. “I was very disturbed that there was a snake slithering around in my weekly food stash. It was just one big shock. My worry was later transferred from the snake to Bee’s state and Jen’s hysterics.”

“I was very concerned,” relays Miss Finch, “when I heard screaming and a good carrying on, followed by the quick exit of Jen and Bee out their front door towards the toilet block. They revealed to me there was a snake so I asked if it was green and black. The automatic yes from the hysterical laughter and crying of Jen made me realize it was the same snake.”

Miss Tapp then declared she was going for a walk, and asked if she was able to walk to the path and out, down (or up) the road. As her sister Miss Sabina Subedi replied to her closer to the scene that she was able to, Mr. Pradip Subedi, her brother, throws the snake (he had excessively sprayed with fly spray) out the bedroom window, to the beginning of the path.

More tears proceeded from Miss Calacoci, and frantic screams flew from Miss Tapp’s voice as she fled to the water well, attempting, unsuccessfully, to climb on to the toilet block roof, and thus, get away.

The snake was beaten by a stick, sighted by all, and deposited in the garden. The snake was not to be sighted again.
“I have seen snakes since that, smaller, and much thinner, on the road on my way to school,” retells Miss Tapp, “and I’m glad to say, I’m becoming immune to them. My fear for snakes is slowly, but surely depleting.”

Miss Finch continues, “It was undeniably a tough ordeal for Bee, but the white kit kat chunkie that was later consumed by her that day would surely not have been hidden from her sisters, prior to heading downstairs if she was snacking on it at the time of the sighting.” Miss Calacoci and Miss Tapp were later witnessed sitting on a high hill far from the scene, eating the chocolate.

“It was all we could do,” says Miss Tapp, “we couldn’t escape, so the only alternative was chocolate.”

Miss Calacoci nods and agrees. “We needed a break, so we had a kit kat – chunkie, for the extent of the ordeal. I believe the chocolate helped us mentally. Just like the chocolate Lupin gave to Harry after his ordeal with the dementors had helped him.

Despite all allegations, Miss Tapp later claimed she would much rather be in any catastrophe than be put in the same room with a snake.
Mr. Subedi later assisted the scarred girls by replacing the holes in the room with corn cobs. “The corn is used for cow, but, I think, we make Bee and Jen feel better with corn.”

Miss Subedi also offered her room for the night as comfort.

“Nah its okay,” replies Bee, “I think the jellyfish will make us alright. I don’t know what I would do without the jelly.”

Although this has not been the last snake sighting in the village, it’s certainly the last of the 2 metre black and green snake.