The Snake People

One day when I was a young girl, about six or seven years old, my grandmother and I were sitting on the back porch of her house next to the orchard, and she began to talk, the way she often did, about animals. She talked about animals as though they were people. She gave them personalities, she gave them humor, mischief, talents, and she gave them faults. When she talked about the animals, she was telling stories about people. She was telling stories about herself, and also about me. But it wasn't until I grew older that I began to realize this.