dream

i agreed to handle a snake. the snake was deadly, poisonous, despite its age and the fact that it could move using only two vertebrae. in order to transfer it, they injected it with a paralyzing agent. it was going to wear off within 10 minutes. i held the snake at the end of a stick and transferred it into a large plastic bag. there was some soil at the bottom, with plants growing out of it. but you can't expect a snake to survive in an airtight bag. so i left an opening. the bag was in my apartment [not any i ever lived in], in a room resembling a greenhouse, most of it overgrown by bamboos, ivy, mosses. the snake climbed out of the bag and remained still in the air for a moment, straight as a bamboo stalk, and then, as if frightened by the surrounding plants, made a U-turn in the air and crept back into the bag. i dialed the number of the guy who was supposed to come and pick it up. it had all been a scam, no one was going to come. i was afraid of the snake: the tiniest drop of its venom could kill instantly. i would never sleep again. and yet, at that precise moment when it coiled back into the bag, i felt an inexplicable tenderness towards it.