Page 39 of Byte

“I can identify all the venomous snakes in our area, and this isn’t one of them. While I can’t always give you the exact species of the nonvenomous snakes in our area, I can tell you this one is a gray rat snake. They are one of the most common snakes inour state and usually feed on rodents, though this one obviously just had one of your eggs,” she said and pointed to the prominent egg-shaped bulge on the snake’s body.

“I take it you like snakes.”

“I do,” she smiled. “Even the venomous ones, but I know to admire those from a distance.”

“Good,” I said and gestured toward the water. “Lakefront property comes with snakes. I’ve seen my fair share of copperheads around here, and even a few timber rattlers.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you don’t want to come across a snake, look for them. I’m always looking for them, and this is only the third one I’ve managed to catch.”

“How did you catch it?”

“This one was a piece of cake. They move a lot slower after a large meal.”

“What are you going to do with it?” I asked.

“I’m going to let it go. Will you take a picture first?”

“Sure,” I chuckled and snapped a few pictures of her posing with the snake.

“Thank you,” she said and walked over to the trees to let her snake friend go.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was smiling, and it was the first time I’d seen her really smile since her whole ordeal began.

“I’m going to go inside and wash my hands,” she said and pointed toward the house.

“We’re right behind you,” I said and followed her and Shadow inside.

“In case I haven’t told you, you have a great place out here. It’s exactly the kind of home I hope to have one day.”

“Thank you,” I said sincerely. I chose my house for me, but it was nice to know that Gabby liked it, too. “Where do you think you’ll end up when you finish school?”

“It’ll depend on where I can find a job. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find something in Croftridge or nearby.”

“What about Patch’s place? I’m sure he’d hire you,” I suggested.

“I can’t say I haven’t thought about it, but I’d never know if he hired me because of my skills or because I’m a club kid.”

“You don’t have to worry about that with Patch. Being a club kid might give you an advantage in getting an interview, but he wouldn’t hire you if he didn’t think you’d be a good fit, and he certainly wouldn’t keep you around if you weren’t doing a good job,” I explained.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You could also open your own practice in Croftridge,” I suggested.

“Maybe one day,” she said. “I need to get a few years of experience under my belt first.”

A loud,rolling rumble of thunder woke me. I started to go back to sleep when I heard footsteps on the stairs. I got up to investigate and found Gabby tiptoeing down the stairs with Shadow not so quietly following along behind her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said.

“You didn’t. The thunder did. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to sleep on the couch,” she said.

“Because of the storm?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s pretty loud up there. I thought I’d sleep better down here.”

I grabbed her hand and gently tugged. “You can sleep in my room.”

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