Bruised Heel and a Suspicious Request

ooking out from under the hollowed-out tree stump, Doc, a large Burmese python, watches. Mr. Heetderks carries a strange animal into the Nature Center. A second one that looks similar follows behind.

“Ssso, you’ve brought me new friendsss,” he whispers to himself as he slithers out from under the stump. Curving around a branch he ascends to the top, getting a better look.

“What are thessse?” Doc wonders. The smaller one is half hopping, half walking behind Mr. Heetderks and looking quite overwhelmed. The other one is being held in Mr. Heetderks arms and seems to be hurt in some way and is also covered in, “What is that, ash?” Doc thinks. He continues to watch closely as Mr. Heetderks moves across the room in his direction.

“Oh, hey there Doc!” Mr. Heetderks says, noticing the snake is out of his hiding place. “I’ve brought some new friends to WorldWonder and this one was kind enough to find the bottom of the firepit. I think he’s got a bruised heel and will need a few days to recover. Would you mind keeping an eye on him for me until he’s fully recovered?”

Mr. Heetderks places Mac gently into a crate sitting beside Doc’s tank and moves toward the back of the room where he grabs a bag of wood shavings.

Just then, Mac looks up from where he’s been placed in the crate and sees Doc, curling himself against the glass. Startled, he jumps back, and lands on his injured foot, whimpering.

“Be careful there, little guy,” Doc suggests distractedly, his long, forked tongue tasting the air. “You’ll need to be exssstra careful with that foot if you expect to get better soon.” A look of genuine surprise comes on Mac’s face, replacing the look of fear and disgust he’d been wearing from the shock of seeing the large snake so close.

Doc’s voice, being very smooth, has a strange effect on impressionable creatures. If you don’t really listen closely to what he’s saying or think very clearly about what he might be meaning, he can seem very wise and persuasive.

This is how Doc has gotten so big. He uses his subtle gift of persuasion to get others (most especially small rodents, frogs and, his favorite, toads) to do things he wants them to do (i.e., come close enough for him to eat them).

Before he was brought to WorldWonder by Mr. Heetderks, he was living in the Everglades. He would lie concealed near a pool of water and lazily wait. Eventually, a mouse, mole, or a naïve frog or toad would come by.

“Excuse me?” Doc would say from his hiding place, being careful not to reveal himself. “Could you help me with sssomething?”

Of course, most mice, moles, frogs, and toads are very eager to be helpful. So, Doc discovered, this was an excellent way to capture their attention. They would always pause, trying to decide whether this silky-smooth voice was dangerous. They would usually hang back at first. That’s when Doc’s cunning would really reveal itself, “I wasss just thinking that I needed someone very ssssmall to help me retrieve my favorite pebble from inside this hole, but there are so many sssnakes around I didn’t think anyone small would come by today. I was very sssad because this is my favorite pebble. Do you think you could help me?” He would ask.

Most unwary passersby would never think that a snake would warn them about snakes. But Doc is a liar. He says whatever he feels he needs to say to get what he wants, which is always food. He’s always hungry! And his only desire is to catch his next meal. So, to Doc, every creature he meets is either food or a means to get food. And this is the snake that Mac is now trapped beside even as Mr. Heetderks reappears with wood shavings in hand.

Missing Momma

“There you go, Mac,” Mr. Heetderks says dumping wood shavings into the crate as Mac awkwardly tries to avoid getting covered by them. “You won’t need to be here long, but while you’re here, let’s make you as comfortable as possible. I’ll make sure you have everything you need, food, water, and…” he continues with a knowing grin spreading across his face, “a bath! That heel of yours will be good for stomping again in a few days.”

At that, Mr. Heetderks walks over and throws open a side door and heads outside.

Mica, who feels largely unnoticed, finds a spot on the floor beside Mac’s crate. She huddles very close to the wood trying to make the very large and foreign space she’s in feel a little smaller. She sees Mac through the gap between the wooden slats, and calls quietly to him, “Mac, what is this place?”

Mac jumps again. And then howls as he lands on his heel, “Owwww!” Then turning to Mica says, “You scared me!”

“Sorry.” She says, “I thought you knew I was here.” She responds sulkily. “Where are we anyway?” she asks after a few seconds.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like this place,” he says, looking towards Doc, whose tongue is very actively tasting the air, like a sticky antenna capturing each of their words as they drift by. Mac turns back to Mica seemingly satisfied that the snake is not paying attention and says in a whisper, “I don’t want to stay here.”

The snake shifts slightly. His head is now just a bit closer to them, though his eyes are still perfectly disinterested. There is a long pause as Mac works his way around his crate trying to see through the slats and finally, he whispers, “I can’t see anything from in here, look around and see where we are?” A second later he adds, “and where’s Dad & Momma?”

Mica, who was still suspiciously staring at the snake is shocked back to the present at the mention of her Momma. Though it has only been 20 minutes since she was carried away from her pouch, she has never been this far away from her Momma for so long and the mention of her floods Mica with fear and emotion. Looking like she is about to cry she says, “I don’t know where they are.”

“Oh, none of that Mica,” Mac says reproachfully, even though he feels the same way. “Go look around and see where we are,” he adds quickly, so as not to be too affected by Mica’s emotions. Mica, still feeling sad, turns away from the crate and looks out at the big space. And almost as if the whole thing comes into focus for the first time, sees that she is in a huge room with very large windows that go from the floor to the ceiling. There are cages and glass tanks all around the room filled with strange and exotic animals. There are even strange animals sticking through the walls and hanging from the ceiling on strings. It is all very overwhelming and strange. She slowly moves across the floor toward…nowhere in particular. And, as she moves away from Mac, she hears a quiet, “hisssss.” She doesn’t bother to look back knowing exactly what made that sound and not wanting to look at it again!

The Suspicious Request

Doc watches as Mica tentatively moves away from the crate, and just as he feels she is out of earshot slides through his knotty body releasing a breathy hiss. As he comes around to face Mac, he says, “Mac, is it? Niccce to meet you, sir.”

Mac does not answer at once but instead eyes the snake suspiciously.

“When someone says nice to meet you, the polite thing to sssay in response is, ‘nice to meet you too.’ I sssee that in addition to keeping an eye on you as Mr. Heetderks has asked, I will also need to tutor you in common decency. No worries, it will be my pleasure. Let’s try it again, shall we? Mac, is it? Nice to meet you sssir.”

At this, Mac says, “N, nice to meet you too, Mr., uh…”

“Doc. You may call me Doc. Or Mister Doc if you prefer,” he says with a sinister chuckle. “I do enjoy young and polite,” he pauses and looks at Mac questioningly. “What are you exactly? You leap well if you jumped into the firepit, but you’re not a toad, for I am very familiar with toads.”

Feeling a bit flattered by Doc noticing his leaping abilities, Mac forgets, rather unwisely, to be a little nervous and says, “I’m a kangaroo, not a toad! We are much better leapers than toads. In fact, I just met a toad out there,” he continues, waving his hand in the direction of WorldWonder, “and, that’s how I ended up in the pit. I was showing that toad how high I can leap, and I didn’t see the hole in that wall, and I fell and hurt my foot, see.” He holds his foot up for Doc to inspect.

Doc’s eyes flash with interest as he sizes up Mac’s foot and then disappointedly adds, “Yes, let me sssee that foot,” gliding to be closer to Mac. “That will be Cane.” Doc begins, as he does his best to appear interested in inspecting Mac’s foot. “He isss a very good friend of mine. Well, he was, that is, until Mr. Heetderks put me in this tank. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very nice home, but it keeps me from seeing my good friends, like Cane, as often as I would prefer.” He pauses, and looks off longingly toward WorldWonder, and then starts again as if he’s just remembering something exciting, “Oh! ssspeaking of that, perhaps you can help me. When you get better, of course?” he adds, swinging his head in a way that suggests Mac can put his foot down.

“Why don’t you just go see him?” Mac asks innocently.

“Well, that would be niccce,” Doc says mournfully. “But,” he continues, “I am quite fond of my home. And besides, WorldWonder is ssso large it is quite hard to find someone you’re looking for when you’re in it. No, it will be much better if Cane comes to visit me here. Perhapsss, you can mention it to him?”

“Oh, sure! I guess?”

“Yesss, but now that I’m thinking of it, maybe it should be a surprissse, since he’s such a great friend. Don’t tell him it’s me who wants to see him, tell him…” at this point Doc pauses ever so slightly thinking what he might say, then continues confidently, “…tell him Mr. Heetderks needs his help with sssomething. Cane is very helpful; he will come to help Mr. Heetderksss.” He says almost to himself.

“Oh, that sounds great! I love surprises. I’ll tell him.” Mac says. Just then Mr. Heetderks comes in through the side door singing to himself. Doc slides away from the glass as Mr. Heetderks walks up. “Thanks for keeping an eye on him Doc.” Mr. Heetderks says, as he looks down at Mac. “At least he’s still where I left him, that’s progress. Okay, let’s get you cleaned up,” he continues as he reaches in to grab Mac. This time, Mac doesn’t try to get away. As he is being swooped up, he catches a glimpse of Doc’s tail disappearing into his hollowed-out log. He shudders a little seeing the size of the snake but shakes it off quickly thinking, “He was really nice to me.”

“I’ve got some warm water in a basin outside.” Mr. Heetderks says interrupting Mac’s thoughts. “We’ll get you scrubbed up and dried off and then I’ll get you some food and water.”

Moments later they disappeared through the side door Mr. Heetderks had just entered. And as they pass through it, Mac thinks he hears birds outside saying, “Watch out! watch out!” Then he remembers suddenly, even as the door shuts behind him, that Mica is still inside.