Strange Friends

Strange Friends

Zeb heard the car drive up to his place in the Arizona desert, between Phoenix and Tucson, and stop. Looking out the window he saw a car covered in dust. He hadn’t had visitors since he walked away from his job in the brokerage business and bought a small house on a remote spread of desert wasteland. He was fed up with the hustle bustle job and what it took to make the big living. His Doctor had told him, choose: his life in Phoenix or a mental break down!

Jim, his brother, and his wife, Alice, got out of the vehicle. He got up from the bench, carefully, and went outside in the 110 degree heat. He said hello to Alice as he jogged around the automobile to embrace his brother. He was glad to see Jim, or anyone, since he had never had visitors out here from the time he bought the place; they talked for a few minutes.

Zeb turn to welcome Alice but she was not there. “Where did Alice go?” he asked.

Jim answered “She went inside.”

“Oh my God, no!” Zeb exclaimed.  Zeb took off running into the house and found Alice sitting on the bench. His eyes shot downward and he spoke softly to Alice saying, “Do not move, stay absolutely still, and do not say a word.”

He walked to the door and opened it. Looking down at the end of the bench he said “Hector, outside! Go outside Hector!”

A rattlesnake, the strange friend, that he had made a tolerable acquaintance with over the years, slithered from under the end of the bench, out the door, across the wooden porch, and out into the desert.

Zeb looked back at Alice, who had fainted and was lying was on the floor.


Story by Bob Philpot