Snake in the Grass

Story Submitted by Marc:

Allison and I had been on several dates.  I was falling for her, but she was a little hard to read.  I figured that I had nothing to lose by bringing her out stargazing on one of the warmest nights of the year, and making my intentions clear.

I drove her a little out of town to a field I knew, spread out a blanket and some snacks, and we lay down.  I took her hand and kissed it, and she slid closer to me.  It was a cloudless night, full of stars, and everything was just perfect.

Then, she jumped.  "Shit," she whispered, "Did you feel that?"

I sat up.  "No.  What is it?"

"I felt something move underneath me."

"Let's move the blanket."

We stood up and gathered up the blanket.  I turned on my flashlight, which was probably a mistake, and shone it down on the ground.

Two garter snakes, which had been under the blanket, slithered quickly into a hole in the ground.  They startled me, for sure.  Allison yelped and tore off, into the field.

"Allison!" I called after her, "It's okay!  Come back!"

She didn't.  I crumpled the blanket and food into a ball and jogged after her, in the direction I thought she went.  I called for her for a while, shining my flashlight everywhere, but she didn't answer, and after several minutes, I had no idea where she was.

"I'll wait for you by the car!" I yelled into the darkness.  I figured that she'd have to come back there, eventually.  Of course, my cell phone had little to no reception out there, although I did get through once and left a message.

I returned to the car and put the lights on.  She didn't show up, and finally, I grew tired of waiting and went out to look for her again.  I called and called, but there was no response.  I must have searched up and down every inch of that field for at least two hours.

Finally, deciding that she'd likely be back at the car by then, I went back to it.  She wasn't there.  I climbed inside to wait, and must have fallen asleep, as the next thing I knew, it was morning, and the windows were all fogged up.

She wasn't in the car.  I jumped out, called for her, and she answered me.  I looked around, and there she was, in a nearby tree, about 15 feet up.

I helped her down and asked her, "Didn't you hear me when I called for you?  I was searching the field for hours, and I left the car lights on."

She said, "I know.  It was a little obsessive and weird, so I climbed up in the tree and prayed that you wouldn't find me."

I laughed.  She had to have been joking.  She wasn't.  She went on, "It's a little possessive and weird that you wouldn't stop looking for me."

I said, "I was worried about you.  Should I have not cared and just driven away?"

She said, "No, but just going back to the car to wait was all you had to do.  I was more afraid of you than of the snakes."

We drove back to civilization in relative silence.  I dropped her off at her house and received a text from her not too long after: "You didn't have to leave a voicemail.  Obsessive much?"

The whole situation turned me off to ever wanting to see her again, which, I guess, is exactly what she wanted.