The Reluctant Serpent - a Fairy Tale

Once Upon a Time Everything was Perfect in Eden, NSW, Australia This is a story about why snakes are reluctant to leave whenever you see them. Why they hang about, instead of scurrying off. A reluctant snake wishes to stay, and repent for unfulfilled temptations. This fairy tale explains why this is so. All the animals the animals and plants in the Eden botanical gardens were created by the good gardener Gavin to be perfect in every way. There were the two nude humans in the garden - Angus and Eva. He told the couple that they could do anything they liked and live the good life in the Garden, on welfare for ever. There was only one rule - they could eat anything in the garden they liked, except for the fruit of the apple tree. Gavin said that if they ate apples they would surely die. This rule was not really a tough test for Angus and Eva because there were heaps of other fruit in the garden – pears plums, oranges and peaches. Gavin liked the garden that he had created very much, but he said that the garden was too perfect and too boring. Angus and Eva were such goodie goodies, they always did what Gavin said. He wanted them to be faced with the choice of obeying him or not, and therefore showing that they would always choose good over evil, even when tempted. It was time to play the 'temptation for evil' card! Now, this created a problem for Gavin the good who could never be evil. Tempting Angus and Eva to disobey him, was definitely evil. So what could he do it? Then he remembered Devlin the evil gardener that Gavin had banished to the back of the garden. So Gavin told the evil gardener, Devlin, that he had a job for him. "I want you to tempt Angus and Eva to do evil by disobeying me." he said. "I know, you can’t do it yourself because I have used a spell to stop you being seen or heard by anyone in the garden." "But you can borrow my animal creator tool just once to make an evil animal to do your wicked ways," Now Devlin was very inexperienced as a creator - he had never done it before. He decided to make an evil lizard because they look pretty cool – slippery, slimy and bad. The existing lizards were all good, but he would add evil features. Devlin spent hours making the template for the 3D printing machine. When Devlin opened the chamber he saw a beautiful head, lovely shiny, scaly skin and a long slinky tail. Wonderful! Marvelous! What a success! Devlin was so pleased with himself. He said to the creature "Stand Up, I want to see all of you". The creature hissed: "How?” “I have no Legs"! Devlin was devastated he had stuffed up the template. He had forgotten the legs! So Devlin was stuck with the legless lizard which he called a serpent or snake. It was Temptation Time! Devlin said to the snake: "It’s time to do what I created you for." "You must tempt Angus and Eva with an apple." "They have never been close to the tree, let alone handled and smelt an apple – it should be a piece of cake for a snake." He climbed the apple tree and coiled his body around a red, ripe, firm and juicy apple and slithered off to find Angus and Eva. He found Angus and Eva, and slithered up to them nonchalantly. "What have you got there” they said to the snake. "It’s an apple” the serpent said, "from the apple tree." Eva said: "Why have you brought it to us, you know we can’t eat apples." "Gavin said eating apples will kill us. "You won't die" said the serpent. "The birds eat them all the time." "Gavin eats them as well, and he’s still kicking." "Come on, just one tiny bite is not going to kill you.” Angus and Eva saw that the apple looked so nice – all red, shiny and juicy. By now the lovely aroma of the apple had slithered into their nostrils. So Eva took a bite from the apple. It was juicy, lovely and delicious. But, suddenly, funny feelings arose up in her being. She looked at Angus and saw that he was staring at her. She thought: “Oh my God I’m starkers!" She was suddenly overwhelmed with embarrassment. She tossed the apple to Angus in a desperate attempt to free her hands so she cover her private parts. Angus caught the apple, but he could not understand why Eva was covering up all of a sudden. After all it was a Nudist Camp in the Garden of Eden. He thought she was just playing a game. He took an enormous bite out of the apple and it tasted so delicious, lovely and fresh. He looked up, and saw Eva staring at him after eating the apple. He had the same reaction: “Oh my God I’m starkers, too” he thought. He dropped the apple and desperately tried to cover up his private parts with his hands. The apple dropped down and whacked the snake on the head. "What the hell is going on," thought the snake. The snake was very disappointed at the side-effect of eating apples. He liked to see humans nude. Nudity would give him the edge for future temptations. He had an artist appreciation of the human form. But both humans had suddenly rushed off to find clothes – how weird, how disappointing, not at all what the snake had intended. Conclusion and Moral of the Story So that is the end of the story about the reluctant snake and how he tempted humans to eat apples, and disobey Gavin the Gardener. The snake was very pleased his temptation had worked so well. But there was one bad apple in the outcome – the side effect, and so his temptation was unfulfilled and imperfect. Humans became embarrassed about being nude and always wore clothes. This disappointed the snake who liked to see humans naked. So why are snakes reluctant to leave when you see them? Let me explain “A reluctant snake is a serpent wishing to repent for unfulfilled temptations” The snake in the grass hangs about when you see it because it wants to repent to you and reverse the past temptation with its bad side effects. The snake wants humans to strip off and be naked. The snake is saying with a vibrating forked tongue: “Come on” “Forgive me” “Get your Bloody clothes off Now!” The End