Submitted by:
Phorester, from About Forestry Forum, Snake Story Discussion
"eyeball-to-eyeball ":
Years ago I was creek fishing with my cousin in Tennessee. He was leading along a narrow portion of the creek, about 10 feet wide at that point, walking through a hole that was as wide as the creek. Our side dropped off steeply as the hole went across the creek. The water had scoured out the other side into a deep pool, the water current was strong and tended to pull us to the other side. We had to shuffle our feet backwards continously as they slid downward into the hole.
Cousin pointed across the creek with his pole to a tree than had fallen over from the opposite bank and covered about a third of the hole, and had slender, horizontal branches just above the water. "Watch out for those things", he said.
I looked, and there at belly button level and only about 6 feet away, lay half a dozen or so water moccasins piled up on one of those branches. Dense brush on our side right up to the water's edge meant that the only way past this point was to wade this pool. But it was only belly deep right at the edge, and got deeper fast.
Since Cousin had gone first, he had also loosened up the rocks I had to walk on. As I started around the edge, the rocks kept sliding out from under my feet and I kept slipping toward that branch full of snakes, until I was only about 3 feet away. I was now eyeball-to-eyeball with the snakes, and in shoulder deep water. Every one of them had their eyes right on me, and I could see them tensing up. Sorta like me, I suspect. Well, you know how bouyant you become in water that deep. Backpedaling furiously, my feet kept sliding and the current propelled me inevitably toward that hole and the snakes. I said "oh Lord, don't let me loose my footing now."
He didn't, I kept backpedaling, and finally got around that hole okay, never taking my eyes off those snakes, who never took their eyes off me. All I could visualize was me sliding into the water and drifting into that branch full of water moccasins.
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