There was this time my mom and I took walks in Texas. We were always excited to hear the birds (different birds than in Pennsylvania!) and we even saw a few Road Runners! One rainy evening, I almost stepped on a snake. This was surprising, since we were on the lookout for Texas wildlife, and we were walking slowly.

The snake was red and black and yellow and my mom and I stared at it for a bit before walking away.
“Is it dead?” I asked. “Is it real?”

I sent a picture to my kids.

My mom said, “There’s a rhyme about this… yellow next to red, something dead… ” She couldn’t remember the exact rhyme, of course so we circled back to the snake to get another look and a utility worker noticed our gaze.

“Uh-Oh,” he said as he came over to get a close look.

“There’s a rhyme of some sort…” my mom said to him.

“Red touch black, safe for Jack. Red touches yellow, kills a fellow.” the man said and we all looked down at the snake. Red touches yellow….

My phone buzzed with a text. H had written, “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

The utility worker kicked the snake.

“Or, it’s a toy.” he said, with a smile.

My mom and I walked away, talking about how this was a little bit too close to the bear outside of my cabin. . . or even the mouse poop. . .