THE UNWELCOME GUEST

Phyllis Owen

  It happened during the 1970’s when we were living in the Diamond City of Kimberley, South Africa. 

  I went shopping and parked the car in the main road of the city centre because the supermarket was down a side street and it was difficult to find a parking there.  After completing the shopping I packed the groceries into the boot and walked to the front of the car.  Tucked under the windscreen wiper was a note.  It read:

                      BE CAREFUL!  SNAKE UNDER THE CAR!

  That was enough for me.  We have had a few brushes with snakes in the past, a couple found in the garden and one had silently slithered into the kitchen.  Fortunately I saw it slip behind the stove as I walked in.  It was like having a bad dream in the daytime.  When the snake was caught it was identified as the deadly berg adder.  I still shudder at the thought that one of the children could have been bitten if I hadn’t seen it come inside, so there was no way I would get into the car until the unwelcome guest was found.  I was about to cross the road when a lady came up to me.  ‘I put the note on your car,’ she said.  ‘Two young African boys alerted me when I heard them shout and point to the car.  I saw the snake just as it disappeared underneath.  It can always get into the car through some cavity near the brakes.’

  I nodded and thanked her, hurrying across the road to where my husband worked at a building society.  By the time we got back to the car a small crowd had gathered.  Word spreads quickly in a small town. 

   Within minutes the crowd swelled.  People came from shops and offices to find out what was going on.  Traffic had ground to a halt.  It was like a full scale ‘state of emergency’.  Traffic officers arrived and ordered the cars in the front and rear of our car to move out.  After the cars had moved they then redirected the traffic.  A rodent squad, armed with gas pumps, swung into action to trap the ‘deadly terrorist’ and the car was rocked from side to side.  But nothing happened.  My husband got into the car to see if, by moving the car backwards and forwards and revving the engine, the snake would drop to the ground, to no avail.

  Two and a half hours later, ‘a snake expert,’ Mr Alfred Landes, from the museum succeeded where everyone else’s efforts had failed.   He crawled under the car and managed to lure the reptile out.  It was identified as a common house snake, about a half a meter long, and to prove that it was harmless, he put its head into his mouth!    I thought that a bit drastic.  It was taken for safe keeping to the museum.  Then some joker caused havoc by throwing a plastic snake among the onlookers.

  But it doesn’t end there.  As the story was front-page news in the local papers it triggered off everyone’s favourite snake story.  We were regaled with these stories and eventually it was suggested we get a cat to keep the threat of snakes away.  This we did, but the cat killed our pet canary. 

   We got rid of the cat and our lives returned to normal.