Chapter 4 - WHAT HE STOOD BETWEEN HER AND
Time changed shape after that.
I pulled Lily backward by the waistband of her jeans while Duke held his ground, his body locked like a barrier between the snake and the child. He snapped at the air each time the copperhead shifted, never trying to grab it, only forcing its attention toward him and away from Lily. I shouted for Lily to crawl toward the porch and she finally obeyed, dragging herself through the grass with tears streaking down her face.
The snake struck once.
Fast. So fast I barely saw it.
Duke jerked sideways but didn’t retreat. He kept growling, shoulders lowered, paws dug into the lawn. I grabbed the fallen branch and flung it toward the base of the hedge, not to kill anything, just to interrupt the space long enough to get between my child and what might have taken her. The snake recoiled deeper into the brush. I snatched Lily up and ran her to the deck.
Only then did Duke stagger.
His front leg buckled. He caught himself, tried to move toward us, and nearly collapsed again. There was a small puncture above his right foreleg and another on the side of his muzzle. The sight turned my insides to ice.
“Lily, stay on the porch. Don’t move.”
She was crying too hard to answer.
I carried Duke to the truck with the kind of strength adrenaline lends and then punishes later. Lily sat wedged against the passenger door holding a towel against Duke’s shoulder while I called the emergency vet and then animal control about the snake. My hands were shaking so badly I nearly missed the ignition twice.
At the clinic, a veterinarian met us in the parking lot. They moved Duke onto a gurney, started treatment immediately, and asked when the bite happened. I kept repeating the same sentence because it was all I could think.
“I almost hit him. I thought he was attacking her.”
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Lily sat beside me in the waiting room with dirt on her hoodie and dried tears tight on her cheeks. After a long silence, she leaned against my arm and whispered, “He knew before us.”
That was when I started crying.
