by ann…..
The native people (First People) of Saint Helena called the area Anakotanoma, or Bullsnake Village. When I visited with Michelle, (no masks, but distanced) she told me a tale of her own Bullsnake Village. A giant, six foot Bullsnake appeared and began slithering in plain view around her garden. Although Bullsnakes are not poisonous, they can bite, and are constrictors, and she was worried about Pepe, her Chihuahua, and Coral, her five year old granddaughter, and she corralled them both in the house. As the snake made a circuit of the back yard, she was joined by another snake, equally large, and then another. Mating of the Bullsnakes? Michelle did not know. They lay about near a blue ceramic pot by her pool for a few hours, languid, and then they were gone and she has not seen them since.
That night I had a dream of a Bullsnake: I awakened in the night in my bed and realized a large Bullsnake was nestled up against my back, seeking warmth. I reached behind me and touched her smooth, solid, heavy presence, and then shifted away. She repositioned close to me again, and I decided that it was okay that she was there, and that I would go back to sleep.
And then I woke again, this time for real, the sky was filled with thunder and lightening, it was August 17 and the Fires were beginning.
This is not a completely true story. I did not have the dream of sleeping with the Bullsnake on the night that the fires began. That was another night.