A man in a suit called out to me in the crowd.

  An awfully skinny, kinda dirty looking man.

  “Would you like one?”

  He leaned in close and whispered to me.

  He was holding a covered bird cage. It appeared he was trying to sell me whatever was inside.

  I tried to brush him off but,

  “Come on, it’ll be very useful,” he said and removed the cover.

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  In spite of myself I was taken aback.

  The cage was packed tight with snakes. Just how many were in there? They were tangled and intertwined, like a giant snake ball. They were hissing and giving off this grassy-type smell.

  I shook the man off and quickly separated myself from the area.

  Then, on a different day. I saw the same man in the same place.

  He was approaching people left and right, trying to do business with them.

  But what I really couldn’t understand was that somehow, in the distance, I could see only a few snakes left in the cage.