The Snake

This is a live recording of me telling this story. Below is the original recording  and below that is the story.

Daniel crept out of bed, grabbed Pablo his dog-eared teddy bear, tiptoed from the room and, after carefully closing the door, ran as fast as he could along to his parents’ room.

‘Dad, dad, there’s a snake in my bed.’ Daniel’s dad put the lamp on and half sat up, his bleary, sleepy eyes adjusting slowly to the light, his brain trying to process the strange, new information.

‘Dad, a snake.’ Daniel snivelled holding a forlorn Pablo by the leg.

‘It was probably just a bad dream Daniel, go back to bed.’ His Dad’s voice was thick with sleep.

‘No dad it was a snake.’ Daniel implored.

Daniel’s mother had now turned on her bedside lamp.

‘Go back to bed Daniel.’ She said in her no nonsense voice.

Dan slumped away from their room but there was no way he was going back to his; the snake was behind that door.

He sat at the top of the stairs wearing his hrumph face and hugging Pablo.

‘You saw it Pablo didn’t you? It wasn’t a dream, there was a snake.’ he muttered to the bear.

He looked at the crack under the door and wondered if the serpent could crawl under it. It looked too thin for that big fat snake but who knew if they had magic powers. He’d keep an eye on the door just in case.  He shivered in the draughty stairwell, his pyjamas no protection from the cold of the night. He sniffed back a tear.

‘Why don’t they believe me?’ Pablo looked with silent sympathy. ‘It was a snake, I don’t tell lies.’

Then a light came on in his parents’ room. Dan froze, he was in trouble now, they’d told him to go to bed and he’d disobeyed them.

It was his father who came out of the room, his hair all over the place, his chest bare.

‘Let’s have a look for this snake then shall we?’ he said in a calm voice that surprised Daniel.

Dan stood up and took the hand his father had proffered; feeling braver because he was with his dad but not that brave. He hid behind his father’s legs as his Dad opened Dan’s bedroom door and put the light on.

‘See there’s no …’ His voice trailed off as he saw the huge creature writhing on Daniel’s bed.

It took seconds to slam the door firmly shut and this time it was Dan and his father who ran as fast as they could along to his parents’ room.