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THE SNAKE’S TONGUE FLICKED IN and out of its ry It wasn’t very colorful dark green, with a few flecks of brighter colors here and there but it looked deadly

The people beneath the balcony ran back toward their seats They were screa stuff as they ran A few people fainted and some fell and were crushed Steve and I were lucky to be near the front: ere the smallest people in the theater and would have been traht in the rush

The snake was about to slither onto the floor when a strong light fixed itself to the snake’s face The reptile froze and stared into the light without blinking People stopped running and the panic died down Those who had fallen pulled themselves back to their feet, and fortunately nobody appeared to be badly hurt

There was a sound behind us I turned to look back at the stage A boy was up there He was about fourteen or fifteen, very thin, with long yellowy-green hair His eyes were oddly shaped, narrow like the snake’s He was dressed in a long white robe

The boynoise and raised his arms above his head The robe fell away and everybody atching hiasp of surprise His body was covered in scales!

Froold and yellow and blue He earing a pair of shorts but nothing else He turned around so we could see his back, and that was the same as the front, except a few shades darker

When he faced us again, he lay down on his belly and slid off the stage, just like a snake It was then that I reether

He stood when he reached the floor and walked toward the back of the theater I saw, as he passed, that he had strange hands and feet: his fingers and toes were joined to each other by thin sheets of skin He looked a little like that monster I saw in an old horror filoon

He stopped a few yards away froht that had been blinding the snake snapped off and it began todown the last stretch of pole The boynoise and the snake paused I re somewhere once that snakes can’t hear, but can feel sounds

The snake-boy shuffled a little bit to his left, then his right The snake’s head followed hie The boy crept closer to the snake, until he ithin its range I expected it to strike and kill him, and I wanted to scream at him to run

But the snake-boy knehat he was doing When he was close enough he reached out and tickled the snake beneath its chin with his weird webbed fingers Then he bent forward and kissed it on the nose!

The snake wrapped itself around the boy’s neck It coiled about hi its tail draped over his shoulder and down his back like a scarf

The boy stroked the snake and sh the crowd, letting the rest of us rub it, but he didn’t Instead he walked over to the side of the theater, away from the path to the door He unwrapped the snake and put it down on the floor, then tickled it under its chin once more

The s The snake-boy lay down on his back a short distance away fro toward it!

"No," I said softly toto"

But yes, he stuck his head in the snake’s wide-open mouth!

The snake-boy stayed inside the mouth for a few seconds, then slowly eased out He wrapped the snake around him once more, then rolled around and around until the snake covered hied to hop to his feet and grin He looked like a rolled-up carpet!

"And that, ladies and gentlee behind us, "really is the end" He s in midair in a puff of smoke When it cleared, I saw hi the exit curtains open

The pretty ladies andto his left and right, their aroodies I was sorry I hadn’t saved so while aiting I could tell fro, and fro to talk to hi could jolt him out of it

When the rows behind us had cleared out, we ht the stuff I’d bought with ifts, because he was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he would have dropped the at the back, holding the curtains open, s at everyone The smile widened e approached

"Well, boys," he said, "did you enjoy the show?"

"It was fabulous!" I said

"You weren’t scared?" he asked

"A little," I adhed "You’re a tough pair," he said

There were people behind us, so we hurried on, not wanting to hold them up Steve looked around e entered the short corridor between the two sets of curtains, then leaned over and whispered in my ear: "Go back by yourself"

"What?" I asked, stopping The people who had been behind us were chatting with Mr Tall, so there was no rush

"You heard," he said

"Why should I? "I asked