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bushes grew lush with moisture but close to the ground. Insects did not shoot up from the ground and whir around her as they would have in sunlight. And here she discovered a multitude of crawling things.
    Hearing her own panting breath, Justice clamped her mouth shut. Breathing too hard and fast, she stopped a moment to calm herself. Fear weakened her insides, and she found she was shaking.
    Stop too long and you’ll never get it done.
    Clumsily, she moved up and down the shade close to the trunks of trees. It took her minute upon minute to steady herself. She could hear the sound of an occasional car back on the winding Quinella Road. It took her time until she was brave enough to work her way out, to walk between the trees and the edgewater. There stunted growth gave place to a rocky way, slippery with moss and wild ivy.
    Again Justice stood still, this time to watch. She had overheard Thomas tell neighborhood boys how to make a search.
    Here I’m about to begin, she thought.
    They won’t hurt you, Thomas says. Even if one of them attacks, it can’t hurt you. You are not born being so scared of them, he says. It’s what you’ve heard about them, what you learn wrong about them that makes you so awful terrified.
    I am scared. Scared to death, Justice thought. Oh, find one and do what you came to do!
    Justice found many. Watching and searching, standing still, soon she was able to separate from green-and-brown shade what looked to be long stripes of grass.
    Until they moved.
    Thomas beating on his drum—“You don’t need to holler like some babies.” Telling boys, “Or pick up some sticks and kill.”
    Striped lengthwise a pale yellow, lying in clumps or beds, all intertwined.
    “Bodies are covered with dry scales. You jerks, they ain’t slimy to touch. They’re ’bout the most useful creatures around. And they always nest at the Quinella Trace. Hundreds of ’em, year after year.” Telling boys and drum beating steadily on.
    Justice was surrounded by them, bedded in the short grass and in rocky, mossy shelters.
    “They can’t keep a constant body temperature. So they could die right off if and ever they stayed in hot sun too long.”
    Justice was horrified by them, but she knew enough to stand still now and to hold her ground. She watched them and waited, which, as Thomas had told was the best way to fit yourself into their world of quiet and shade. She saw them move, gliding over and under rocks. Some were large, so frightening, maybe three feet long. Others were busy young snakelets whipping around in brand-new skins.
    Sweat dripped from her face. A feeling like stripes of cold curled and knotted her stomach, insects found her feet and crawled over her sneakers.
    Stand still as long as there are no spiders. One thing I can’t stand is them big brown spiders!
    Watching second upon second, she pulled herself in from crawling creatures. She was a small, solid space in a cocoon of time. From its stillness, she saw the garter snakes move by making their skins crawl. Justice became fascinated by the larger snakes. Across their bellies was overlapping skin which seemed to grip the ground and move. Something, maybe muscles inside a snake’s body, actually pulled it along.
    I wouldn’t say they are good-looking creatures, she thought. They are so awful strange! But sure they aren’t ugly as sin, like I’d’ve sworn they would be.
    She saw forked tongues flicker out and in. It was then she forced herself from her safe detachment. She moved ever so carefully.
    Just a smallish one for now, she thought. But I’ll have to catch the biggest one I can find for The Great Snake Race on Friday.
    Snake eyes watched her every move. She stayed two or three feet away from each clump and bed of snakes.
    There’s only one of me. I’ll faint if I think about how many of them!
    Her legs felt shaky. She should have eaten breakfast; yet food would have made her sick by now.
    I’m weak, I truly am.
    She forced herself to