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if it was an inch. The only way out was to get to the staircase. And that meant passing between the bookshelves.
    I took a deep breath, fighting the urge to run. If this snake was like any of the ones I’d seen the last time the family went out west on vacation, it was probably just as scared and weirded out as I was. The last thing I wanted to do was weird it out even more by accidentally running at it.
    I stepped slowly, keeping the candle low. Wax dripped onto the concrete floor. With the overhead lights and the candle’s flame, I could see a little underneath the bottom shelf of the bookshelves, enough to keep my nerves from completely overtaking me.
    Steady now. Slow. Move smooth. If you see it, Alice, just step back and take a different aisle.
    I made it halfway. That’s pretty good, right? But the moment I heard the slithering again—off to my left—my feet picked up their pace. I could see the staircase. I could see the little light bulb hanging above, illuminating the old wooden stairs.
    And then I saw the snake. I froze in my tracks. It slithered out from the end of the shelves, right in front of the staircase. It looked at me and its tongue darted out again. Tasting my fear.
    The snake … had grown.
    “That’s impossible,” I said. Impossible, maybe, but that didn’t make the damn thing disappear. Nor did it shrink. It looked five times bigger now, at least—not just longer but bigger . Its diamond-shaped head was nearly the size of a textbook.
    It raised its head, then slowly lowered it to the ground and began to slither toward me. I held the candle out for protection. The flame danced. The snake hissed, forcing its way underneath the bottom shelf and quickly disappearing underneath.
    “Gawd, you smell like a snake,” I said, backing up. My feet moved me back to the other side of the basement where this whole mess had started. The flame darted left and right. Hot wax ran down my fingers, causing me to drop the candle. It landed on the floor but the flame stayed lit. I bent over, grabbed it, and screamed.
    The next two seconds seemed to move in slow-motion. The snake was already closing the distance between us when I lifted the candle, its mouth already in the process of opening, revealing two very long white curved fangs. It had grown even larger and the open mouth seemed to be the only thing in my entire line of vision. My other hand came up and the tip of the fountain pen plunged into the soft flesh underneath the snake’s jaw. I fell backward to avoid the cavernous mouth and the massive creature continued forward, landing on the floor with the fountain pen still sticking out of its shiny white skin.
    For a moment, nothing happened. No movement. No blood. Then, slowly, the area around the pen brightened a fiery orange. The color spread across the snake’s body, like burning paper. There was no smoke, no smell. And when it was done, there was nothing but a small snake-shaped strip of ashes lying on the floor.
    And the pen. I crawled over to it and grabbed it, feeling that warm sensation run through my body again. My fingers were shaking. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. A drop of sweat ran down my forehead. I wiped it away and tucked my hair behind my ears.
    “Congratulations, Alice.”
    I spun around and dropped the pen in disbelief. There, leaning against the nearest bookshelf, was a brown rabbit.

Chapter 3
    “Born and bred in the briar patch, Br’er Fox! Born and bred in the briar patch …” [iii]
     
     
     
    It wasn’t just a rabbit. A rabbit would have been weird enough! No, this rabbit was huge . We’re talking five feet tall, only a few inches shorter than me. And not only was he huge, he was wearing clothes. He had on an old white collar shirt and a brown vest and ridiculous old gray slacks made even more ridiculous by the fact that he didn’t have any shoes on.
    “Where are your shoes?” I asked.
    The rabbit’s long whiskers twitched. “That’s the