Charlotte knew to expect new adventures when she married her husband, and moved out of the city, across a couple of states, and into the old farm house he had talked about for months, but a snake in the house wasn’t foremost in her expectations.  The decision to change her lifestyle hadn’t been as hard as she might have thought.  She was deeply in love with Michael, and he loved her just as deeply, and she viewed his more rural lifestyle as an exciting adventure.  She’d always loved getting out of the city, preferring hiking and camping trips to sitting on a chair in a beach resort somewhere.  So, this wasn’t a scary change for her.

 

Until the morning she saw the snake in the house, that is.

 

Although they lived on farm land, they weren’t farmers.  Michael had a law degree and had joined a small, local firm.  Charlotte had already decided to spend her days fixing up the house, starting a smallish garden from which she could sell a few vegetables at the farmers market, and working on a book that had been rattling around inside her head for a few years.  She didn’t miss her high-stress job in a big-city office one teeny, tiny bit.

 

Her husband had left for the office early that morning, and Charlotte padded into the kitchen to get a small breakfast before repainting the dining room.  The paint and supplies were already sitting in the empty room, waiting for her.  But, as she walked into the kitchen, she squinted at the odd shape sitting on the stove.  From her point of view, it looked as if her husband had left a scarf or something lying across a couple of the burners.  That was odd, since it was nice weather outside.  Then, the scarf moved.

 

Charlotte moved closer, still unsure as to what that was moving ever so slowly over the top of the range.  Finally, she realized, she had a snake in the house.  And, this sucker was big.  She couldn’t tell how long it was, exactly, but it was longer than her arm.

 

Charlotte could keep her cool under pressure, so she just left the room and called her husband, who assured her he didn’t think there were any poisonous snakes in the area, but she’d better call the police, just to make sure.  After nearly two hours, a lone policewoman knocked on the door, and said she understood there was a possible animal problem in the home.  She paled when Charlotte said they had a snake in the house, and outright walked out of the room once she laid eyes on the thing.

 

After getting no help from the police, Charlotte got the number for Allstate Animal Control.  The animal control expert got the snake out of the house and Charlotte got back to her day.  But, she admits that, to this day, the stove is the first thing she inspects whenever she walks into the kitchen.