An Unforgettable Experience

I was about seven years old when a very frightening incident happened to me. In fact, thinking about it now still gives me a creepy feeling. When the incident happened I was helping my dad on his farm during my school holiday as every year, my dad would plant tomatoes, corn, beans and usually a few other crops on his farm.

As my father’s farm was far away from the one and only village primary school, it had been decided that I was to stay at the school dormitory. So during that school holiday, I was excited to go home and spend my holiday helping my father on his farm. We were using a rotary tiller with the blades mounted in front to break the ground. I had always enjoyed watching my father operating the tiller. Sometimes, he would let me hold it for a few minutes. The familiar noise sounded like music to me.

That day was like any other day with me following close to my father’s heels. My father started the noisy old tiller and began ploughing. I was watching to see how many earthworms I could catch for our coming fishing trip. I got bored for I could not find any, so I chased after my father through the field. He finally stopped and asked me if I wanted to plough. He held on to the old tiller for a moment and then, he let me hold it.

It was fun holding the old tiller for a few minutes. I felt like an important person ruling the kingdom of his farm and everything on it. My dad gestured to me that he would take over when he saw that I was tired. While handing it back to him, I saw a black stick moving across the ground. It was a long, black snake. And it was gliding towards my foot!

I screamed, “Snake!” For a minute or two, I stood there, rooted to the ground, my mouth in my heart. It was just as if I had been charmed by that black snake, making me paralysed.

I felt my father grab my hand. I woke up from my ‘trance’ and we both ran without looking back, on and on until we came to the road. By then, we were breathless and dizzy. Luckily, neither of us was bitten but I would never forget the sight of the snake slithering quietly towards me.

That incident had left me with a permanent fear of anything that looks like a black stick. In my imagination, the stick would move and even now, thinking about it gives me cold sweat. The frightful incident still haunts me.