Tales of the Other

People tell me their stories and I listen. I guess that is the real reason that I am here on this planet. To listen. Where ever I go, I listen to the stories of the ineffable, the sad, the recriminatory, the desperate, the whispered nuances of other secrets too dreadful to tell. 

This first story is one I have to get off my chest. I don't want to think about it any more.

I was helping a fellow find something for his fish tank. It turns out that it wasn't a fish tank after all. It was a tank for a big python. 

The python's owner was short, swarthy and built like a weight lifter. He had huge forearms with a fair bit of dark coarse looking hair. Dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt he looked as if he could be a construction worker.  He was trying to build sliding glass doors so that the python could go in and out of the tank more easily without hurting its head. 

As I listened to his story he revealed that this particular snake was about 200 pounds. My eyebrows must have gone up a bit for then he said;

"Yup, she could eat me"

"Oh?"

"Yes, I have about 5 pythons but she is the biggest"

"What do you do with them?" I asked.

"I raise them for their eggs"

"For what?"

"Oh I sell them, I make a pretty good living at it too. I made about $35,000 last year just on the eggs."

I began to wonder who exactly wants to raise something so very dangerous. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Anyway I am hoping that this isn't one of my neighbours or yours. But you just never know what people are doing in the privacy of their homes.