Three mornings later, Kimberly walked into the kitchen of Sunflower stifling a yawn. It was four in the morning. The lights were already on, which meant Dosana was there before her. For the past three nights she’d slept poorly, mostly because she yearned for James in the night almost as actively as she avoided him in the day.
She was in an impossible situation and had no idea what to do.
“Morning,” she said, feeling tired and groggy.
Even through her morning stupor she sensed something was wrong. Dosana stood beside the bread oven like a stone statue. "Dosana?"
"Don’t make any sudden moves," the woman said, not even turning her head. She sounded tense, frightened. Immediately, the last wisps of fatigue cleared as she stepped slowly forward. "What's going on?"
She couldn’t immediately see any broken machinery. Or smell anything, like smoke. Nothing that would account for Dosana's peculiar attitude.
Until she stood beside Dosana, following the woman's fixed gaze. Then she immediately understood the reason for her standing frozen in shock.
A snake was coiled in front of the oven. It wasn’t a small snake, either. Not one of those little garden snakes that occasionally skittered away when she crossed a gravel path. This was a large snake. A very large snake.
It looked like the kind of snake that would emerge from a snake charmer’s wicker basket and do some kind of terrifying dance. "What do we do?" Dosana asked in a whisper.
"I have no idea. How long has it been there?"
"I don't know. It was here when I arrived. I'm scared to move. See the way he’s staring at me? He’s licking his lips in anticipation."
"I don't think snakes have lips." But she could see the tongue flicking in and out too.
“Is it poisonous?”
“I don’t know much about reptiles.”
They both stood staring at the snake. It stared back with tiny black eyes. It was curled into a mound of brown and green and gray and its tongue continued to flick out from time to time. While they watched, the snake moved, stretching its head toward them. Dosana gave a squeak of alarm and jumped back. “I’m so scared.”
Kim could see the powerful muscles ripple as it shifted but it only seemed to be curling into a more comfortable position. "I think maybe it just wanted to get warmed by the stove."
"But it can't stay here!"
"I know. What do you suggest we do?"
"Call the sheriff."
She glanced over at Dosana. "The sheriff? What do you want him to do? Arrest it?"
Dosana shook her head, barely moving. "He can shoot it."
She stared at the snake. The snake stared back. While she wasn’t thrilled to have a large reptile curled up in the kitchen of the bakery, it seemed unnecessary to shoot the poor thing. Still, she didn’t have a better idea than to call James. He seemed like a sensible person, the kind that you could call at four the morning when you were trapped in the kitchen with a dangerous animal.
In fact, she’d wanted to call him all night.
She slowly stepped back keeping her eyes fixed on the snake but it merely watched her retreat without attempting to follow, bite or strangle her, which seemed like a good thing.
She grabbed her cell phone from her bag. Found James’s number in her contacts and called. He probably wouldn’t even answer at this hour. But, on the second ring, he said “Sheriff Chance," in a surprisingly strong voice.
"Sheriff, I'm really sorry to bother you, but—"
"Kim?" He sounded wide-awake now. "Are you in trouble?"
She was so grateful that he had answered the phone. "We have a, um, situation at the bakery."
"What is it? An intruder?" His tone sharpened. She heard rustling and pictured him grabbing his uniform, dressing rapidly as he talked. She stifled a hysterical giggle. "Sort of. Yes. It is an intruder. But not human."
His tone sharpened. "What do you mean, not human?"
“It’s a snake. A very large snake. I don't know what kind, but maybe a boa constrictor?” She’d seen them on TV and once in a zoo. “It's in the kitchen and it's got me and Dosana trapped here."
Dosana cried out, "It moved! I think I might faint."
“Don't faint!" she commanded.
In her ear James said, "Stay where you are. Do not move. I'm coming right over."
"Just please don't shoot it."
In minutes she heard the blessed sound of a car pulling up outside the bakery. A car door slammed. She said softly to Dosana, "Do you want to go and let him in?” Because of course she’d locked the door behind her when she entered the premises this morning. They couldn’t use the kitchen door since the snake was there. Dosana said, "I can't move."
"Okay, don't panic. The sheriff’s here. I’m pretty sure it’s a constrictor and they're not poisonous." She wasn’t at all sure if that was true but she didn't want Dosana fainting or in any other way upsetting their serpentine morning visitor. If she recalled correctly, the boa constrictor wrapped itself around its victim before squeezing it to death. She did not share this information with Dosana.
She backed out of the kitchen slowly and then ran to the door where James was standing. He wore the slightly stunned expression of someone up too early but he was completely alert and when he saw her he gave her a reassuring smile. "You okay?"
She nodded, relieved now that he was here, believing somehow that he could solve this problem or at least make it go away. As he stepped inside she noticed he had a laundry hamper and a burlap sack in his hand. She glanced at him, puzzled. He shrugged. "It was all I had handy."
She led the way and he followed. When he got to the kitchen he said, in a very calm voice, "Dosana, I’m going to come and stand beside you, and when I get there, I want you to take a step backwards. A nice slow one and then another one until you’re out of the kitchen. Can you do that?"
He was going to put himself between Dosana and the snake.
Dosana nodded stiffly. "I'm allergic to wasp stings," she said, as though that was relevant.
James nodded, as if that was a perfectly normal reaction to facing a boa constrictor and said, "Okay. I'll make sure it doesn't bite you. It probably just came in to warm up by the oven." His voice was so soothing, she could see Dosana’s rigid shoulders begin to relax and ease away from her ears. She took one step back. Then a second step. And then she kept going until she was all the way out of the kitchen. “I’ll set up out front,” she announced. She’d arrived early to help bake, but Kim understood that she hadn’t counted on a large reptile in the kitchen, and even setting things up out front would be a help.
Kim might not be the bravest woman in the world, but she didn't want to leave James here. Maybe he needed help snake wrangling. He took a step toward the snake. Once more it shifted and they were treated to a demonstration of the way the powerful muscles rippled. "You have any experience with snakes?" he asked her.
"No. You?"
"No.”
She said, "Couldn’t we barricade it in here and call a zoo or something."
He shook his head. “I don't want it getting out and terrorizing anybody else.” To her surprise, he pulled out his cell phone, fiddled with the focus and took a close up of the snake.
“Would you like me to snap the two of you together?”
“I’m sending a photo to my sister. Lauren’s a vet. Maybe she can ID the snake.”
Slowly he stepped towards the snake which began to rock back and forth as though it were listening to a funky tune. James took another step forward. Her heart was pounding. She didn’t know what she’d do if it attacked him.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said quietly to the snake. The snake did not look convinced.
She grabbed a heavy frying pan. She thought if it made a move on James she might be able to run in and hit it on the head or something. If she had to. Maybe.
He took another step forward. “What are you doing?” she squeaked.
“Think about it. This did not come in from the wild. There isn’t a zoo for miles. It has to be a pet. It seems pretty accustomed to humans.”
She tightened her grip on the skillet and held her breath as James eased the hamper down and over the snake's head and body. The snake moved its head and body as though unsure about the hamper but it didn’t slither away and in no time, James had it contained.
She returned the pan to its hook on the wall and it made a rattling sound.
James said, “Can you pass me one of those cookie sheets?"
"Sure." She passed him one of their flat stainless steel industrial cookie sheets. It was much larger than the mouth of the basket but still she thought it was the bravest thing she'd ever seen when James slid the cookie sheet underneath the wicker basket. He talked to the snake, the way she might've spoken to a child frightened by a dog. Soothing, slow, as he leaned over to ease the pan under the basket she watched the powerful muscles of his shoulders and back moving under his uniform shirt.
Her mouth went dry at the sheer beauty of the man in his everyday bravery.
"Okay. We've got it contained." He glanced up her, keeping his hand on the top of the basket. "Now what the hell do I do with it?"
She was wondering the same thing. “Your sister didn’t get back to you?”
“No. She probably has her phone off.”
“Well, as you said, he escaped from somewhere. Is there a pet store? Or somebody who raises reptiles locally?"
He shook his head, "Not that I know of. I can only think of one person to call," he said and took a step toward her.
“Should you really walk away from the snake?"
"No. You better make the call." He resumed his position with his hand firmly on top of the laundry hamper. Through the holes she could see the snake sitting there staring back at her.
She picked up her phone. He said, "Call my dad. If anybody knows what’s going on around here, it will be him."
She glanced at the time on her cell. "It's four forty-five in the morning."
"He's an early riser."
He recited the number and she punched it in. The phone only rang once and was picked up. A cheerful voice said, "Jack Chance speaking. It's a beautiful morning."
A little of her tension eased. "It is, Mr. Chance. This is Kimberly calling From Sunflower Coffee and Tea Company."
His voice sharpened. "Is it Iris? Is she okay?"
“Oh, yes, everything's fine. I'm not calling about Iris. I've got your son James here."
"James? What’s he doing at the bakery at five in the morning?"
"Well, there’s a big snake in the kitchen. We think it's a boa constrictor.”
"A boa? Where is it now?"
"In a laundry hamper."
“How the hell did a snake crawl into a laundry hamper in a bakery kitchen?"
James was giving her the move along signal with his free hand. She said, "James has trapped it in the laundry hamper. Mr. Chance, we’re wondering if you have any idea who the snake might belong to?"
"My best guess is to call Enid Parkinson."
"Does the snake belong to her?"
"I don't know. Does it answer to the name of Alice?"
“Alice?”
“Who’s Alice,” James asked, looking confused.
“The snake. Who calls a huge snake Alice?”
It did seem as though the reptile head moved whenever she repeated the name.
Into the phone she said, “It seems to respond to Alice. Would you have the owner’s number?”
She couldn’t imagine that Jack and Daphne would have the phone number of a person who not only owned an enormous snake, but named it Alice, but he said, "Sure I do, somewhere.” She could hear him moving around, shuffling papers and then some wood on wood banging, as though he were opening cupboards or drawers. "I think she's on the phone tree."
She heard a bang and then, “Sorry, I dropped the phone. I don’t want to wake Daphne, but she’s the one who knows where the phone numbers are. Oh, this looks like a telephone book. Yep, here we go. Wait a minute, is that an eight or a zero? Or maybe a three? Hang on, honey. I’ll get my glasses."
She had visions of phoning three different people at five in the morning asking if they owned the snake. She wished she’d stayed in bed with the covers over her head.
James said, “What is going on?”
“He has to find his glasses."
James nodded, looking frustrated, and they both waited. In another minute she had Jack back on the phone. "Okay, I got my glasses. Now let's see, yes, here it is. Okay it wasn't a zero or an eight. It was a three. He gave her the number. She repeated it to be certain she had all the digits correct and then, thanking him, disconnected.
"Do you want me to call this woman?" she asked James.
"You can do that or you can babysit the snake."
“I'll make the call."