This is a true story
6 years ago, when we
started our school, Ari decided to brighten up our backyard by making a
small fish pond. She dug a hole and lined it with rocks. Then we went
out and bought three goldfish, which we called Kin-chan, Gin-chan
and Do-chan. Our first three fish died after a few years and we now
have three new fish: Ma-chan, Da-chan and one without a name.
Anyway, about 2 weeks ago, I
was preparing some
lessons in the classroom when Ari suddenly called me. "Look!" she
shouted, "there's a snake in the pond." Sure enough, there was a thin
brown snake about 40 centimetres long happily swimming there. I asked
Ari, "Do you think the fish will be OK?" "No problem," she said, "I
don't think snakes eat goldfish."
Well we saw the snake in the
pond a few more
times over the next few days and didn't worry too much about it. Then
about 10 days ago, I was sitting in the classroom again preparing
lessons and I heard an angry shout from the back garden. I rushed out
and saw Ari. She was running around the pond with a plastic bucket in
her left hand and a pair of disposable chopsticks in her right hand.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm trying to catch the snake," she said.
"Why?"
"Well, I was feeding the goldfish and, suddenly, the snake came
out from between the rocks and jumped at the fish, so I'm trying to
catch it, but it's too fast."
"So what are you going to do if you catch it?" I asked, "Kill
it?
"Oh, no, I'm not going to kill it. I'll put it in the bucket,
then take it down to the rice fields and let it loose."
Well, that's what Ari was going to do, but the snake was
too fast and she couldn't catch it. As I said, that happened about 10
days ago and we haven't seen the snake since. I told some of my
students about it and one of them reckoned the snake was probably a Jimuguri. Apparently
the jimuguri is a very timid
Japanese snake and
Ari probably frightened it away for good.
(If you want to know what
happened afterwards, please click: Ari and
the Snake, Part 2)
