Summary

In “Snake Stories,” a female narrator walks home from a party with her husband, and they talk about the Genesis story from the Bible. The narrator makes a connection between the serpent in the story and the prevalence of snakes in Florida. She is glad to be walking beside her husband, as there have been several rapes reported in her neighborhood over the past few months.

A month passes, and the narrator, feeling depressed, goes to a nearby duck pond. She watches as a heron flies through the air and plucks a water snake from the pond, cutting it in half with its beak. This reminds her of a passage from the Iliad in which a similar image is used as an omen. On another day, the narrator goes for a run and happens upon a young Latina woman in her...