“Look! Look!” My little, three year old brother, Clarence, was shrieking as I looked to see what it was all about.
I was three years older than Clarence. We had gone down to the branch to play. It was one of our favorite places to play. We spent hours there, several times a week. We turned over rocks to look for minnows. We wondered at the smooth round pebbles that the water washed in its ever flowing movement. We found frogs, crawfish, turtles, tadpoles, and crawly bottoms hiding under the rocks.
This particular morning on the way to the branch we had seen a little green lizard as it scamped up the trunk of a large pine tree that was near the edge of the branch. The lizards were fascinating little creatures whose skin changed to match the color of whatever they were on. We had watched him a little while and saw his color changing from green to the brownish-black color of the pine tree bark. Then we had gone on to play in the branch.
When I looked up to see what my little brother was pointing at, what I saw froze me still with fright. On the bark of the pine tree, with only his head and a smallpart of his body showing, was the little lizard. He was no longer just a little brownish-black lizard. He was something ferocious, wild and fierce! He had blown-out his throat until it was like a bag. He pulsating his throat in and out and it had turned a fiery red color. There he was with that bright, red throat, blowing in and out and he was looking straight at us.
We stood frozen in our tracks for a minute or so. Then I screamed, “He’s poison, he’s poison – lets get out of here!” I threw down the pebbles and we ran as fast as we could up the trail that led back through the woods. We ran and ran towards home. I am sure we had never run as fast before.
As we ran into the house we were calling “Mama! Mama! Mama! We saw a lizard that was poison. He had a big swollen throat that was red and the throat was puffing in and out, in and out. It was after us. It was poison and it was after us!”
Mama chuckled, soothed us and told us that the lizard was as afraid of us as we were of him. She said he displayed this red throat puffing in and out as a way of protection to him. It was a way of scaring away his potential enemies. Although Clarence and I were not enemies to him, he certainly scared us away.