Last Saturday morning, my bedroom door flew open and in ran Michael.
"Mommy! Daddy! I just saw a snake in the hallway!"
"Honey, it's for you." I said as I rolled over to catch another couple of winks.
"Michael, you had better be telling the truth." Michael grumbled as he pulled on his shorts and sneakers.
I heard closet doors being opened and closed as Michael looked for the alleged snake.
"No snake," he said when he came back into the bedroom.
"Maybe you just imagined it, Michael," I yawned.
"I did not! I went to the bathroom and when I came out it was in the hallway! It made my legs shake!"
When Lizzy awoke later in the morning, I told her that there might be a snake in her bedroom, but that she would probably never know because her room was such a mess - being awoken so abruptly that morning had made me just a wee bit cranky.
That was the last I thought about the alleged snake.
Fast forward to last night, Monday night about 11:00 pm: My bedroom door flew open and in ran Michael.
"Mommy! Daddy! The snake just crawled under my bed!"
"Honey, it's for you."
"Michael! There had better really be a snake!" Michael grumbled as he pulled on his shorts and loafers.
"Stay in here. I'll be right back."
"Look! Daddy has his official snake hunting shoes on!" I laughed.
Michael's bed has a trundle and sits directly on the floor so there's really no "under the bed" to it. Nonetheless, I heard my great white hunter pulling the trundle out, bang his knee, curse, and open and close a couple of closet doors.
"No snake. Go back to bed, Michael."
And he did.
A few minutes later as Michael and I lay there in our bed, Michael said, "If I had seen a snake crawl under my bed, there's no way I would go back in that room on the other side of the house to sleep!"
I had a momentary flash of guilt, but decided that if there had really been a snake in that room, there's no way Michael would have gone back in to sleep. No snake. He's crazy, I thought and I rolled over and went to sleep.
I awoke at 3:00 am, went into my bathroom without turning on the light so as not to disturb Michael. I did what I had to do and went back to bed.
The next morning, we all got up, got dressed and everyone headed off to work and school. I went to clean the bathrooms.
I wiped down the counters, cleaned the mirrors and scrubbed the toilet in the kid's bathroom. I did the same in mine, wiping down the bottom and back of the toilet as well. As I was leaving the bathroom, something caught my eye. I reached down behind the toilet to pick up the errant piece of trash only to find:
