The Scout and the Snake Eggs

(Full Audio Version of this Story is located at the Bottom)

There was a husky boy scout named Patrick, who thought that he knew everything about everything. He hiked and camped and read all he could about the outdoors. He even bragged that he could live off the land, just like the pioneers, if he had a chance.

Finally, some of his fellow Scouts got tired of listening to him and bet him twenty dollars that he couldn’t even get through one full night and day without going to McDonald’s for a burger. They all pitched in their change and shook hands on the bet. With the bet on, Patrick, with no food or water, started his journey deep into the woods. The other Scouts had made sure to search both Patrick and his knapsack to make sure he wasn’t carrying a Snickers or anything.

At first, Patrick pitched his tent and set up his camp. He could do that easily enough. Then he began to forage for wild food. None of the leaves looked like the ones he had read about. He tried about ten different kinds of nuts and berries but didn’t much care for any of them. He confidently set a snare and waited for his victorious accomplishment to catch diner. Hours later he came back to check the snare. Sure enough it was tripped. He caught a whole leaf in it. Frustrated and getting a little hungry he started hunting around animals’ holes. Hoping to catch something, but nobody was home in any of them. Patrick remembered reading about following animal tracks to hunt for animals. So, he started searching around for tracks, but only seemed to find tennis shoe marks, mostly his own. Exhausted and frustrated, he decided to call it quits for the night and went to bed hungry.

The next day wasn’t any better. He got a handful of fur off the end of a squirrel’s tail but couldn’t catch the squirrel itself. He found a lot of rabbit signs, but no rabbit, He scared the heck out of a lot of fish but didn’t catch a one. He peeled the bark off three or four kinds of plants and didn’t find any he liked.

Finally, as he was getting a drink from the stream, wondering where he was going to get twenty dollars to pay off the losing the bet, he saw a nest!

The eggs were strangely round, not oval-shaped like most birds. They were a pale white, not too brightly colored like bird eggs ought to be. And they were kind of leathery instead of having nice, hard shells like eggs from the grocery store, but he didn’t care. He was hungry and it was time to eat. Being the scout that he was, Patrick decided to only take one egg and leave the others alone.

He tried to get a fire started but it seemed a lot harder to do then what he has read in all his books. After several tries, he gave up on the fire. The egg he grabbed was leathery and slimy and he couldn’t crack it open. He was getting desperate, and really hungry. So, he took a deep breath, held his nose and just swallowed the egg whole. It tasted awful and it sat like a rock in his stomach.

Admitting defeat to himself, he packed up his tent, went back to the other Scouts. Of course though, he told them all about how he had eaten like a king. He told them he had gathered roots and nuts and berries, caught a squirrel, and so on. They didn’t much believe him, but they paid up anyway because he didn’t seem hungry.

In all actuality, his stomach started to become upset, and he didn’t much feel like eating.

Back home the next day Patricks’ stomachache got worse. He started taking antacid tablets for the pain. These helped a little and he figured it would all pass. The worst he could do would be to throw up the egg. Which didn’t happen.

The stomachache kept returning over the next few weeks. They did however seem to get less and less painful as time went on. After telling everyone he was fine and ate like a king in the woods, he was too embarrassed to tell anyone. So, he just kept taking antacids and for some odd reason he suddenly started becoming really hungry and started eating more and more.

Even though he seemed to constantly be eating, Patrick started to grow thin and pale. His friends were getting a little worried about him, but he just bragged that he was on a diet to trim down for his next camping trip.

He began to spend more and more time in his room lying in the bed with the light out and feeling sick at his stomach. It looked like he was going to be there the whole summer. He just kept getting hungrier and hungrier, and even though he ate, he got skinnier and weaker and paler.

One day, one of his friends came over to check on him. “He’s upstairs,” said his mother. “He’s been there since breakfast.”

The friend went up and knocked on the bedroom door.

No Answer.

The friend went inside and in the dark room saw Patrick lying on the bed.

The friend spoke to him.

No Answer.

The friend turned on the light.

Patrick was lying on the bed. Cold, pale, and dead. His eyes were wide open staring at nothing, and his mouth was wide open.

That’s when his friend got a little closer only to notice crawling slowly out of Patricks’ mouth was a long, wet, snake. Darting its tongue in and out, looking for its next meal.