Snake Charmer

She knew since that day on the playground in grammar school when he had trapped that poor lizard with a glass jam jar and all the boys took turns throwing rocks at it until they smashed it and laughed. She had scooped the mangled lizard up and run home crying. Trying to make him a bed out of her pillowcase with the yellow flowers on it, she did her best to be gentle. With the tip of a pencil she would dip it into water and let the tiniest drop touch the end of its mouth. But it never drank. Thinking back now, she had never been afraid of the snakes, though her most frequently asked question was, "Aren't you afraid they'll strike?!" She had always been more afraid of boys with rocks that would grow up and trap her under their glass jam jar.