Snakes And Saviors - Part III

Snakes were never part of my fantasies. Actually I hated them. Actually I hated anything that crawled. While me and Sunil trembled outside the door, Jason carefully collected the snake into a trash bag and walked out. He wanted me to identify if it was the same one I saw that morning. Identify it??? Sure…over my DEAD BODY!!...I just turned away and gestured that I might throw up. Sunil saw that the bag was tightly tied and suddenly was all gallant. He started pulling out his iPhone, ready to take pictures. I think he took some, kissing the trash bag, showing the victory sign, patting Jason on the shoulder etc... I really don’t know..I didn’t pay attention as I was going through lot of emotions myself. Jason, my Savior, the Man of the occasion, the Employee of the month, The Performer of the year (am I again deviating here?) calmly collected the bag, said he would drop the snake in the woods and go home and bade us goodnight.

I was wide awake that night. Though Jason said snakes are loners, don’t move in groups, don’t believe in maintaining girlfriends or spouses and hence there won’t be any relatives of my visitor staying back with me, but still I had a sleepless night...
Second day, I had chills...
Third day, I had more chills...
Fourth day, I had chills and office meeting...
Fifth day, I was on flight to our company's West Coast offices, away from the Black snakes, Chills and the Brave Saviors...

Good Bye Snake and Live Long My Savior!!!

Snakes And Saviors - Part II

Jason walked-in... This matured, self-assured geek of a guy didn’t know what he was getting into. As soon as I saw him, I poured out my story. I always wonder that in everyone there’s a streak of butler English. I know you all know what I mean. And it comes out in the weirdest of moments ever, like when you are with the person you have this gigantic secret crush, when you are talking to your Boss, when you see a snake or imagine it, the list goes on… So I poured out my story to him in a broken voice, hmmmm actually in broken English. Now when I look back, I feel that, that was quite an animated and eloquent out-pour, with my eyes almost dropping out of my sockets, my hands flying..you know, I know you all know what I mean... But Jason looked unperturbed. He looked at me with such calmness that would have, in another occasion, brought us world peace. And said ‘oh no problem. Lets stop by your place in the evening and have a check’. Was I relieved..you bet I was. My gloom cleared. I even hummed a song I guess..

So Jason, Sunil and I set off to my apartment, Sunil with pure selfish of intentions, he needed a photograph and a exciting bedtime story for his daughter. In another occasion, I loved going home. My modest abode had everything I wanted, a bed and a TV..but today I dreaded every bit of my journey home. I parked and waited for them, I am definitely not going in there alone. We let Jason enter first. How I admire the way he walked into the flat, confident and in total control. We, lesser mortals followed. The place looked organized as I left it that morning. I wonder what was the pest control guy meant by searching inch by inch. The place was untouched. While Jason went through the search in methodical way, we both just stared. While I was totally paralyzed and had difficulty in moving, sunil had partial bouts of paralysis. Jason searched everywhere and couldn’t find anything. We were pretty sure that the thingy I saw in the morning was a rope indeed. Sunil was suddenly chatty. He started gyrating in the apartment, talking suddenly about anything and everything. He opened the door of laundry room and made some comment about some cartons lying there. That brought me suddenly out of my stupor and I said I heard some noises there sometimes. Sunil and Jason moved those boxes and sunil gave a sudden cry. That was it..., I burst open the front door and sprinted out at 150miles per hour...like a dart, like a bullet, like the wind itself. If I participated in athletics at that moment, I would’ve made India proud! Sunil followed closely…but with the latest update. He said Jason found a snake! The Snake!!! I almost fainted...

To be continued...

Snakes And Saviors - Part I

Location: East Coast, United States
Time: AM

It was just a normal day on a summer morning. I had a restless night, got up late, had a severe headache, getting late to work and had 3 meetings in a row with my first meeting about to start in 10 minutes…so far the day was going just great…

I got ready and was about to leave to work. I went into the walk-in closet attached to my bedroom to pick my purse. As I was stepping into the closet, I felt someone else or something else is entering along with me. I looked down and saw something black, an inch away from my foot coiling into the laundry basket. I could see the end of a twitching tail or whatever it was. Alarms went all over my head with a deafening sound. While a chill ran down my spine, my reflexes acted as lightening and I was out of the house like a bullet out of a gun. On my way, I remembered to pick my laptop and purse though. I have this compulsive disorder of picking up my laptop in weirdest of calamities. I remember when there was an earthquake, everyone ran out of the building with their belongings while I ran out with my laptop, shoeless and without any of my stuff..Anyways to continue with the story, when I think back now, how I got into the car and drove to work is just a blur.

I got to work, attended a meeting and then broke this news to my co-workers, all the while trembling. Everyone had a typical way to react. Gopi stayed as calm as ever and doubted if I saw a rope and thought it something else, Roberta had some horrendous stories to share, un-intentionally or otherwise scaring me to hell, she also cracked few funny jokes which I had difficulty laughing, Sunil wanted to take pictures of that coil thingy for his daughter. Nothing was helping.. The chill that ran down my spine settled somewhere in my body and kept replaying itself every few minutes. I called my apartments rental office and announced about the new visitor in my apartment. The girl who answered the phone apparently did not get what I was talking about. All her reaction was ‘really?’ I was looking for some compassion. Nevertheless, I gave her the details and asked her to get my apartment searched for the black thingy and let me know the latest in an hour. The day was moving very slow and my heart was pounding very fast. The thought of going back to my apartment where I lived alone, and share it with the black thingy was sending chills down my spine. An hour went by but I didn’t get any call from the rental office. So I called them and the same girl answered the phone. Apparently she forgot all about my horror story. I recited it all over again. She said she will take care of it which I very much doubted. Another hour passed by but nothing happened. I called them again. This time a male voice answered, said he is from pest control, assuring me that he is on his way to my apartment. I felt reassured. Right after ten minutes, he called again, said he searched my one-bed apartment inch by inch but couldn’t find anything. He searched four rooms in 10 minutes??? Hmmmmm… I was even more dubious and even more scared...I have decided that I would sleep in my car,or at my desk or even worse, on a tree but to enter into that apartment again. My panic button was on and my thoughts were going awry. That’s when my savior walked in...

To be continued...