9 Snakes - p.2
"It does look better," Danny said. He picked up his tennis shoes and jeans, turned to Buddy and said, "Let's try it out. Bound to be deeper than this is."
"Sure, why not," said Buddy.
We waded down to the next section of the creek, dropped our clothes on the shore, and waded out to the deeper place near the opposite bank, but not too near. The water was just exactly deep enough to swim without scraping the bottom. Overhanging trees shaded the best part of it and kept the sun from burning down. I floated on my back and paddled while I looked up through the tree branches, at the light scattered through the leaves. I dipped my hands and kicked now and again. It didn't take much to keep me afloat.
"Let's remember where this spot is," I said.
"It's the best yet," said my brother. He stood in the middle of the pool, the water up to his chest. With his hand turned to the side so just the edge of it dipped into the water, he splashed Buddy. The water lifted up like a wave. Buddy and my brother always tried to see who could make the biggest wave that way, just like they skipped the rocks to see who could make the most skips.
"Sure is," said Buddy, and splashed him back, but my brother dove under water. He swam over to Buddy, lifted him up by one leg and dunked him into the water.
Renee moved away from them, closer to me. But I swam in water too deep for her, so I paddled closer to her.
"It's so cool here," Renee said. She ducked under water and came up with her hair wet. Part of it hung in her face. She pulled it back.
"Want to sit on the bottom and have a tea party?" Renee asked.
We tried to dig our feet into the soft dirt of the bottom to keep us down a little longer, but we only stayed at the bottom a few seconds, pretending to drink our tea before we bobbed back up. Renee came up before me, then back down, her hair floated upwards as she came down.
I stood up, then squatted back down. "How is your tea?" I asked underwater, moving my mouth with little bubbles coming out.
Renee said, "What, what?" I could tell from her mouth but I couldn't hear her. She cupped her hands upwards and tried to pull herself back down. It didn't last. We both went up.
"What did you say?" Renee asked me.
"I said, “How is your tea, Madame Preshire?" Mama used to call Renee that sometimes, when the three of us were doing something special like baking apple pies. Renee and I got to help roll out the dough, then Mama finished it. We pressed the pieces of dough into the pie dishes, or over the cut up apples and cinnamon for the top crust, and we poked the holes in the crust with a fork.
"How about a piece of pie with your tea, Madame Preshire?" I asked, and reached to grab
Renee's hands, so we went down together.
"How about a piece of pie with your tea?" I asked again underwater.
I watched Renee's mouth answer, "Yes, please."
Then we had to come up for air.
"That was fun," Renee said.
"Delightful," I said. "And the pie was so delicious."
Renee laughed. She jumped up and down in the water.
The boys were ready to hunt snakes. Shoes back on, the boys carrying their rolled up jeans, we headed back upstream.
Buddy said, "Try to find a big rock to smash the snakes with, maybe some smaller rocks to throw."
I picked up a few smaller rocks, gave a couple to Renee. I wasn't going to get close enough to pound a snake with a big rock.
Renee took the rocks from me, closed her hands around them, then used the inside of her elbow to wipe her hair out of her face. Her barrette had come out. Mama would have been wanting to trim Renee's bangs about then.
"How are we going to find any snakes anyway?" Renee asked.
Danny swung his tennis shoes by their tied together laces. A piece of wet hair fell down over his forehead. "We’ll look under rocks and stuff,” he said, “and any place where there are long grasses or tree roots growing in the creek."
"There's probably a lot over there hiding under that bank.” Buddy pointed. He reached down for a flat stone and skipped it across the creek. One skip, two, not a good one.
Buddy looked all up and down the shore before he walked to a big rock about six inches across, partly stuck in the ground. He put both his hands on it to work it free.
“Careful,” Danny said. “It might have something under it.”
Buddy jerked his hands away. Danny went away from the shore to some brush and came back with two small tree branches. He handed one to Buddy, who wedged the stick underneath the rock, then pressed down on the end of the stick until the rock came free.
He poked with his stick until the rock turned upside down.
Nothing, not even a roly-poly bug on the bottom of the rock, or in the dirt underneath.
My brother picked up a baseball size rock and Buddy got a few smaller ones. We walked upstream.
Every boulder the boys saw in the water, they poked under with their sticks.
Snake number three swam away from the roots of a tree that grew next to the creek. Buddy scared it out when he hit the roots with his stick, then he caught the snake up on the stick and slung it over onto the bank. Danny ran close to it and threw his baseball rock at the snake’s head. The snake lay still, its head smashed.
"Watch out," Buddy said, "It may not be dead." He threw his own rock at the snake and hit it just under its head. He smashed the snake's whole body with the end of his stick.
"Guess that'll do it," Buddy said.
Snakes four and five came from under rocks. The two boys killed snake four the same way as snake three, one of them slinging the snake out of the water with his stick, the other going after it with rocks and his stick to smash it, but snake five got away.
Snake six coiled beside a rock, not under. Danny got snake six with one throw of his baseball rock, smashing it flat just under its head and Buddy used his stick to finish it off.
A couple more and it began to seem easy.
Renee and I threw our rocks at one of them. We didn't pick up any more stones once the first two were gone. We weren't good shots, so we watched the boys trample the snakes.
"Guess those snakes won't be bothering us any more," Renee said.
Up ahead, Buddy raised his stick in the air. "I reckon not," he said.
Renee moved closer to me, whispered, "Do you think any of those snakes were poisonous?"
"I don't think so," I said, "Mostly snakes aren't. Mostly they like to keep away from humans anyway. I read that somewhere."
Renee said, "You never know, though." She stayed well away from those snakes even now that they were dead.
"Yeah," I said, "You never know."
We walked quite a ways further without finding any more snakes. Danny picked up a few smooth stones and practiced skipping them on the water. Buddy did the same.
Renee said, "Can't we stop now? Maybe all the snakes are dead."
Danny said to Buddy, "It'll soon be time to head back, and we need another swim to cool off before we go."
"Okay," Buddy said, "just one more snake."
Now they checked every possible place a snake might be. They found snake number nine in a clump of tall grasses that grew out of the water. Buddy got it on the very tip of his stick.
At first I was afraid he’d lose it and we'd have to keep going until he found another, but my brother got his stick under it too, and together they flung the snake over onto a rocky place on the shore. The snake didn't move. It was small and dark brown. Maybe it hit a rock on its way down. It didn’t look like it would hurt anyone, but Buddy ran over and hit it with his stick a couple of times. Then he picked it up with the tip of his stick, laid it on a flat rock, then hit it again and again until the snake was smashed flat. That snake was dead for sure.