Move Over, Rita, Make Room for Leiann

A few posts back I told about a new frightening side of my sister-in-law Rita. It had to do with her encounter with a coral snake. Now it seems I have a similar concern about my daughter-in-law Leiann. She is pictured here with her alien son Thomas. Maybe dealing with an alien every day makes other occurrences minor. Whatever the reason, I put Leiann in the same super woman category as Rita. Rita will have to share the title. This is what happened.

Thomas ran in to his dad and exclamimed, "Dad, there's a snake in my Legos!"

"Can't be, Thomas," Ron told him. "It's probably a tail to one of your Bionicles that you saw."

Thomas was adamant. "It's a snake. It is moving."

Ron was also adamant. "Then, Buddy, get your mama. I ain't touchin' the thing."

Thomas got his mom and informed her that a snake had slithered into his Legos bucket, which is at least a foot tall. Leiann went to see. Sure enough, there was a snake. Now, that's unusual. That's horrifying. That's unthinkable. But what followed next was unbelievable. Leiann picked up the wretched thing - all the while it is nipping at her fingers - and tosses him out the back door. It's done. Over. And I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this.

I understand that Leiann and Rita married into our family and, consequently, never swam in our family gene pool. That must account for their lack of Snake Fear, a true, real, honest-to-goodness family trait of ours. Which explains, too, my son's reluctance to be the hero in this situation. He does swim in our gene pool. Plus, I think I scarred him for life during a childhood incident.

He and Allison were playing in the back yard when I heard them yelling. I started running out the door while asking what was wrong. They told me there was a snake by their swing set. I turned right around and headed for the safety of the porch. Then I called them to me, assuring them they wouldn't get hurt. I didn't go to them. They were two and four and I knew their fear didn't equal mine. But it must have had lasting effects since Ron had Leiann wear the pants that day.

"What would you have done had it been a roach," Ron asked her.

"There is no way I would have touched it," Leiann said. "It would have scared me to death!"

Really? I don't like uninvited bugs in my house but I'm not afraid of them. I have no problem picking them up and disposing of them. A snake doesn't fit into the same category for me.

I have an idea! Donna lives in the middle of a rattlesnake pit. She's in our gene pool and I worry about her constantly. Suppose Rita and Leiann moved in with her to control the snake population? Donna would no longer be at risk and Rita and Leiann, the super women, would be in their element.