Back in the early ‘60s my Dad was still working for De Beers Diamond Mines in Kimberley. I was in my last years of high school at the prestigious Kimberley Girls High. We had just been awarded a brand new mine house to rent in a brand new suburb. The whole suburb consisted of mine houses, so it was in effect, a mining village. (Everybody always knew everyone else’s business!) I hope they have since introduced a couple of cafes or supply stores, since it was miles away from anything like that.
Well, here we were with this brand new house. My Dad was thrilled, my step-mom... well not so much, as all the finishing touches had not been completed and we still had plumbers etc tramping through the house with dirty boots. My three year-old brother hated it, as he was not allowed to play in the ‘garden’ as it was still virgin veldt. I didn’t care much one way or the other, at that point in time; until I discovered the draw-backs.
The house itself was very nice, but it was situated on a corner with a train-line running around the corner, just across the road from us. What a bug-bear to get used to steam-trains rattling around in the dead of night, always blowing their whistles as they approached the corner – why, I don’t know. It wasn’t as if they were going to crash into anything on the corner.
My Dad decided to make a veggie garden in the back yard, and to have lawn with a fish-pond in the front garden, with flower borders. Little did he know that inches below the surface lay massive boulders. A huge amount of work would be needed to whip that ground into shape.
We started with the back yard; I was being ogled by the pimply faced teenage guy that lived in the house behind us.(YUK!!) Dad insisted that he wanted to start planting as soon as possible, before the summer rains came. First all the tumble-weed had to be uprooted as well as all those wicked little thorn bushes with their hooked white thorns. We set to with a will, with our picks and shovels; Dad telling me to watch out for snakes.
Evening found Dad and I tired and grumpy; my delicate little hands were starting to blister, my thrill for hard labour had diminished considerably and Dad had discovered a boulder that he swore was half the size of the house. He declared that this set-back would not deter him; he would make a fire on it, and then douse it with cold water – that would cause the rock to crack.
At least we could have a good meal and hot bath before we rolled into our beds, or so we thought. But when we went to bathe, the water was only tepid. So much for our thoughts of steeping in steaming luxury! Ma (my step-mom) had worked hard in the kitchen, between looking after her rambunctious son, to produce a meal of note. I was sure that I was going to sleep like a log. I ached in every limb, but it was an effort to keep my eyes open. Aah! To sleep, perchance to dream....
Sleep jumped up and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck that night. I don’t know how long I had been sleeping, but I awakened in the dark, with something heavy and cold, lying across my forehead. I lay perfectly still, trying to figure out what it could be – one word popped into my mind...SNAKE!! My mind was in a whirl – what to do now? If I moved, would it bite me? If I screamed, would it bite me? If I lay still, would it bite me, and my folks would find me dead in my bed in the morning? Well I wasn’t about to let THAT happen!
I lay for countless seconds trying to screw up enough courage to do something, anything to get me out of this predicament. With a great burst of energy, driven by adrenalin, I jumped out of bed, letting out a piercing scream at the same time.
My Dad came flying into my room seconds later. As he switched on the light, he found me across the room from my bed, holding my arm and shaking with fright. I was babbling, almost incoherently... Snake...bit me....arm dead... My Dad glanced all around, and seeing no immediate evidence of a snake, grabbed my arm to inspect it. As my Dad was turning my arm this way and that, looking for puncture marks, my arm started to tingle..... I had pins and needles! I started to laugh with relief.
Dad wasn’t cross with me for disturbing his sleep so rudely. He was thankful that it wasn’t an emergency – and so was I!
I wonder what was laying across your head? Geeze, I hate snakes. They are my one true phobia. My mom thinks it's because when I was about 2 I got snake bit. All I know is it doesn't matter to me how big they are I don't want them near. For a long time I couldn't handle even seeing a picture of one unexpectedly. The book would get slammed shut and thrown across the room!
Lol, it was my arm laying across my forehead! It had 'gone to sleep' and was cold from poor circulation - that was the first indication that I had inherited that complaint/disorder from my father.
