Posted by hunny_Beez on Mon 28 Apr 08, 11:02 AM to hunny_Beez's blog.
I often wonder what happened to my snake.
I can't remember a time before he lived at the bottom of my bed so I presume he moved in when I was really little. I never minded him living there, after all I was only little and did not need all of the bed. I only just reached half way down when fully stretched.
We had a good relationship going. He would check out my wardrobe and under the bed each night in case of monsters while I was cleaning my teeth and I would always make sure my sheets and blankets were well tucked in. My snake did not like drafts.
I use to have a cotton sheet on the bottom of the bed then a cotton sheet over us a big fluffy pink blanket and then over the top was a candlewick bedspread. My mum said my bedspread was gold but I thought it looked like mucky mustard. I never liked it so I would fold it back on itself at night so that I had my lovely pink fluffy blanket to snuggle up to and the snake had a double thickness of bedspread to keep him toasty warm all night long.
Another good thing about having a snake at the bottom of your bed is that I never had to worry about Goblins or even worse, crocodiles moving in. Goblins throw all your bedclothes off the bed at night and make you cold whereas crocodiles, well they are the worst of all bottom of the bed residents as they nip at your toes while you sleep making you wake up and cry. You never get a good nights sleep if you have a crocodile at the bottom of your bed.
Sometimes we would have a chat but most of the time we just went our separate ways each knowing the other was there and both of us keeping to our unspoken arrangement. We did get a bit of a scare once. My mum talked about changing our bedding for a quilt but as they were new and thankfully too expensive she didn't, otherwise poor snake may have suffered from drafts as you can't tuck a quilt in the same way as you can sheets and blankets.
Now we both knew that it was going to happen. I was growing. I did try to sleep with my legs tucked up to give snake as much room as possible but even then I would wake sometimes and know I had stretched out in the night. I worried that I had kicked snake but he never complained.
We had a chat one night about the fact that it was getting close to the time when snake would have to move out. It was a sad thought as he had been my night time protector for so long. I did suggest he moved into my little sisters bed. After all she was seven years younger than me.
He said “NO WAY” and went on to explain he would only live at the bottom of the bed of good girls or boys and my sister was a total spoilt brat. I had to agree she was. He then went on to say that he could not move in there anyway as a few years back he had told a passing crocodile about the space at the bottom of my sister bed. I was a little cross with snake until he explained that he had only done it after my sister had been coming into my room and touching my things when I was not there. So I could not be angry with him could I?
It did explain why my sister would wake up at night crying. I decided to have a close look at her toes next time we went swimming, I was never sure if crocodiles left bite marks or not.
I asked snake how he came to be at the bottom of my bed, He told me that he had moved into my bed after he overheard the mother of the boy whose bed he occupied before, talking about making a draft excluder for along the drafty back door. She said she was going to make “a snake draft excluder” That was it, snake was out of there as quick as a flash. He said he had heard about a new good girl who had just moved into a bed who needed looking after and so in one night he travelled all the way to my bed. He said it was a long journey.
Snake and I discussed the fact that most people were moving over to quilts and he may suffer from drafts. He did say that as most houses now had central heating in the bedrooms it may not be such a problem. However he also talked about moving into a zoo. I never knew that most of the snakes you see in zoos are in fact ex bed snakes. I told him to go to Chester zoo as that was the closest zoo to me. He said if he decided on a zoo he would do his best to get into Chester. He said if he saw me on a visit he would wink at me to let me know it was him.
I go to Chester zoo every year and always spend time looking at the snakes but none have so far winked at me. So I presume he did not move in there.
After our talk that night I sort of forgot about the conversation. Everything went back to normal. Then one night I woke up and realised I had stretched out right to the bottom of the bed. The bottom of the bed was cold and so I moved my feet slowly and carefully around. My snake had gone. I don't remember exactly what night he left, all I knew was he was no longer there. He said he would no go until I was ready for him to go. So I lay in bed and thought about it for a while and decided I was ready for him to go and look after someone else.
I got out of bed and threw that horrible dirty mustard bedspread onto the floor. I no longer had to worry about keeping my snake warm and climbed back into bed stretching out all the way to the bottom
I often think about my snake and wonder where he is. So if you ever come across a snake who hates drafts ask him if he ever lived in Wales.
hunnyB
| 28 Apr 08, 7:44 PM electricfog UK, 7 yrs |
Loved it - thanks. ef |
