As
mystery writers and for mystery readers, fear of some kind has to be included
in a story or book, but as people not characters, what are we afraid of? What
would really spook us if it happened? What do we worry about happening to us?
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| I once had a nightmare of a tiger roaming outside. |
This
might sound strange, but I’m not afraid of much of anything. Of course, if
someone broke into my house with a gun, I’d be afraid, but I don’t worry about
that happening. If a tiger escaped from the zoo, I’d be afraid if it was
wandering around my house, but I don’t live near any zoo. If I lived in an area
with cougars or grizzly bears, I’d be nervous walking by myself, but there are
no cougars or grizzly bears in my area. I live alone with an extremely friendly
collie. Would she protect me? I doubt it, although my niece’s husband, a cop,
said even having a dog is a deterrent to burglars. I have nothing of value to a
burglar, unless it’s a burglar interested in a thousand or more books. I only have
cheap jewelry. I don’t keep much cash on hand. Of course, burglars don’t know
that. I’m not totally clueless. Still, I live in a rural neighborhood with
neighbors across the street and a son sort of next door, and I do keep my doors
locked most of the time.
I
think I don’t worry about things so much because my mother and grandmother
never did, but then the newspapers weren’t filled with crimes then so much. At
least I don’t think they were.
I
got to thinking about something most people seem to be afraid of and that’s
snakes. According to Clara Moskowitz on Live
Science, March 3, 2008, “Fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias,
yet many people have never seen a snake in person.” She claims that “New
research suggests humans have evolved with an innate tendency to sense snakes –
and spiders, too, - and tend to learn to fear them.” The article goes on with
references to other articles on this. I’m wondering if part of it goes back to
the Bible story of Adam and Eve, but probably not.
As a young girl I used to catch snakes and
chase boys with them. Once when I was quite young – and I don’t remember this –
I caught a black and white snake and put it in the garbage can where it totally
startled my father. Of course, we didn’t have poisonous snakes where we lived
except for swamp rattlers in a low lying place at least twenty-five miles north
of us, or so I heard. Mostly what was around where I lived were garter snakes
or milk snakes or the occasional black snake which I don’t remember seeing any
near where I lived. So snakes may startle me if they come out of the weeds, but
I’m not afraid of them. Once I even had to fish one out from under the hot
water heater when my then husband raced up the steps in a panic after spying a
snake when he was getting ready to take a shower in the basement. I got the
snake out, put it in a bag and took it outside to release it.
The
first rattlesnake I saw outside of a zoo was on a backpacking trip in
Pennsylvania with my sister Elaine. At first we thought it was a large branch
stretched across a forest road. When we got closer we saw it was a large snake at
least six feet long or longer with a huge bulge in the middle where it had
swallowed something. We were both excited seeing it and walked closer to it. It
lay still with its tongue going in and out as it tried to figure out who or
what we were. We stood not too far from it and watched as it slowly glided into
the large patch of ferns in the woods next to the road.
I
saw another rattlesnake down on the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah Valley
National Park. It was a very hot day, and I was out of water and heading down
the trail that went down to a stream at the base of the hill I was on. My sister
and her son had gone ahead of me, and I came across her sitting on a boulder.
She said we couldn’t go on because a rattlesnake was on the path ahead. I was
hot and thirsty and wasn’t going to let that snake keep me from getting to
water. So I walked ahead and stomped my feet and pounded my walking stick on
the ground when I got within five or six feet from the snake lying across the
narrow trail. Now snakes can’t hear, but they can feel vibrations, so the snake
started shaking its rattles in warning, but I only pounded louder. I was not
going to climb up the right side of the narrow trail or climb down the other
side, either. Eventually, it gave in and slithered off the trail a short
distance as I walked by followed by my sister. (I recently learned from a fellow blogger that
recent research shows that although they don’t have ears something inside does
allow them to hear. I find that interesting.)
For
a while after moving into the old farm house; I bought, I got milk snakes in my
basement because the basement had a crawl space under part of it and there were
spots where the foundation had gaps. They didn’t bother me because I rarely saw
them, but once when my granddaughter and her friend were taking care of my
critters and went to clean the litter boxes in the basement, they saw one on a
beam overhead. It spooked them. I’ve since had any gaps in the foundation
repaired. An interesting fact is that milk snakes feed on rodents, birds and
other snakes, even rattlesnakes.
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| No, this wasn't the guy or the snake I held. |
As
a third grade teacher, several times we had someone come in with different
animals including a python. Once when he asked, I agreed to let him put it over
my shoulders, and only got a little nervous when it wrapped its bottom half a
little tightly around my arm. Snakes are afraid of falling, and it was only
trying to get a firm hold of something to keep from falling. The snake’s owner
carefully unwound it from my arm. The man encouraged the children to touch the
snake. Some wouldn’t but many did and were surprised that it didn’t feel slimy.
Several
weeks ago I saw a garter snake beside my brick sidewalk in the garden bordering
it under bird netting I’d put there to keep the rabbits from eating the
begonias I’d planted. I ignored it and walked on. Much later when I saw it still
there, I realized it was trapped so I got garden gloves, a pair of scissors and
cut off as much of the bird netting as I could and then picked it up and sat on
a garden bench with the snake on my lap and carefully cut as much of the
netting as I could without cutting into its scales. It lay there quietly with
its little tongue flicking in and out. When there was only a small bit still
attached to it that I was afraid to cut any closer and risk cutting it, I put
it under the bench. It lay there awhile and then slowly moved away.
I found out the second thing most people are
afraid of are spiders. Well, I wouldn’t want a big spider in my bed and don’t
like them in my house, but I don’t freak out. I simply sweep it up with my
sweeper. Otherwise outside I like to see them in their spider webs waiting for
an insect to come along for dinner. I
taught a unit on arachnids to my third graders, too, and although some might
have still been afraid of spiders most were fascinated by them. Once a college student
from Hiram College; in the village where I taught, came to visit us and she
brought a large pet tarantula in. She let it crawl on her hand, and I did, too.
Only a few students did.
What
do I fear and hate to see? Not bears. I saw a lot of those backpacking in
Shenandoah National Park on the AT, and occasionally young male bears come into
our area to escape from adult alpha male bears. I heard one once while walking
and Maggie barked at it, but it was in the brush and left without me seeing it.
The next day my daughter-in-law and great-granddaughter saw it by their house,
and I had signs of it when every blueberry on my bushes disappeared one night.
No,
not bears, but I hate rats. I’ve never had one in my house, but have had them
in my barn. I’m not particularly afraid of them as much as I don’t like them
and worry about one finding its way in my house. I haven’t seen a rat in my barn for several
years, and I’m glad of that. In one of
my short stories, I used rats as a way to cause the death of a not so nice
person. The other third grade teacher in my school loved rats and let them crawl on her shoulder. She found them very friendly, but then they weren't barn rats.
What
do you fear most?
If
you’re a writer, have you used your fear in your stories or books?
