The week after the last day

Do you remember your last day of Kindergarten? I remember the week after my last day. I lived across the street from my elementary school. In a house on the corner of main and union. My teacher took the time to stop and talk to my mom. I stood in the backroom watching as they discussed me on the sidewalk outside. What could they be discussing?

During the visit, my teacher told her how I was telling the other students about snakes. He specifically mentioned my story about king snakes. How they were immune to venom and eat other snakes. That they even eat the poisonous ones. He didn't know if what I was saying was true, so in his free time, he checked out everything I said in the encyclopedia.

I knew a lot about snakes then, and it was a fascination born out of fear. The fact that they are so different from us. They have scales and are without legs, to a child they appear alien. Do you remember how you'd memorize books before you could read? I memorized every I could find about snakes.

He told her that everything I said about snakes was true. Whoever has ears ought to hear.