Twenty thousand people are killed each year in Africa, by snake bite.

There are twenty thousand tear-tracks down the face of my soul; twenty thousand who had no thing and died a horrible death in poverty. I digress. Gaboon vipers have the longest fangs of any snake in the world, two inche s, and they inject the largest dose of venom of any snake. Gaboon vipers are in a dead heat for the most lethal snake in Africa. The other candidate is the li ttle Puff adder. Puff adders are responsible for more African deaths; they have shorter fa ngs, which is a somewhat meaningless statistic, but theyre pissed at the world be cause they arent physically ideal; a Napoleonic complex with poison to boot, theyr e small with an attitude. Bad tempered little guys, cranky and very aggressive, saw scale vipers are responsible for more deaths than any other African snake, mainly because of their size and temperament, they easily go unseen, and so much of their enormous range is in remote backcountry areas a long distance away fro m proper medical treatment. Gaboons, on the other hand, have the most painful bite, producing excruci ating pain for three or four days, as their hemotoxic venom dissolves the flesh, making life easier for the snakes stomach, which contains no digestive enzymes. Listen to me! I sound like a damn encyclopedia. The pattern on the Gaboons ski n, broad geometric planes, could have been painted by Braque, de Chirico, Czanne. But they are a handsome critter. Dont you think? Yes. It was absolutely striking! Very punny. Ha! His laughter was genuine. How did your fascination with snakes come about, Brant? I played with fire a lot, as a child. How did you learn snake dancing? Im serious! So am I! Danger intrigues me, more than snakes do. Danger living on the razors edge reminds me that Im alive, and, how much I have to lose! Curiosity! Im curious. That leads to research. Youre the same! When you know youre going to visit a place, you learn as much about it as you can, before you go. I do, anyw ay. The people, foods, languages, customs, culture, local animals and plants, h istory and politics, weather, religion and sports! I think that covers most of it. And, animals fascinate me. Venomous animals are just one example of a real miracle: evolution. The most fascinating of all animals, of course, is the fem ale of the species Homo sapiens sapiens. Thats one critter I just cannot get eno ugh of. Ooh! Theres one, now. Ha-ha! Im glad you didnt kill that viper. Thank you for saving me, too, S ir Dragonslayer! Or, is it Saint George? Nuits Saint Georges? Ha-ha! I do happen to have a very nice bottle of Pommerol. But, youre not saved y et! And Im no saint! I spared the dragon. Saint George killed his. If he did that today, hed be pilloried! In the Fifth Century, they canonized him Sic trans it gloria! Do you play the oboe? Well, thank you just the same. Without reply, he smiled at her and their eyes met, completing a circuit . She kissed him softly, then again with more appetite. He felt a powerful rus h of hot new blood, from his femoral artery, stiffen his resolve to please her. She felt it, too, and buttons began to lose their grip. She disinvested hersel f of the sheerest of encapsulating fabrics in a most provocative manner, seeming to take great pleasure in teasing him. He took pleasure, as well, and returned the kindness, ushering her into the journey to come, on which they were about to embark. Finally, he had the opportunity now to observe her gorgeous young body i n the relaxed light of unperturbed abandon. She was mercifully hardware-free; t hough never averse to new experience, he was not yet sure how to deal with the r ing in clitring; the word ring, in general, in the same breath as woman, still bro ught a chill to his spine and warmed the engine of his getaway car. Her breasts were perfect. They seemed to lead a life of their own, inde pendent of the rest of her; a buoyant, charmed life, that impatiently anticipate d her every move. They appeared to avoid gravitational force; she was a pencil test titleist. Her toned tummys sympathetic curves posed a proud prelude, with j

udicious epilation, to the coming fugue: her dainty and smooth-shaven mons Vener is begged veneration. Full of grace, and glistening, like a dewy morning meadow , it shared the herbal ardor of a summer rain. His face glowed with a happiness that now illuminated his loving labors, at this unremittingly mystifying cleft between her legs; his smile met hers, lip to labium; his tongue, serpent like, scrutinizing, testing and tasting, and toasting, as he lingered, reverent and pe nsive, at her altar: the Vestibule of Being to ponder and wonder and worship at the shimmering scissure before him that this quaint little wattle could wield such wo rldly wallop holding it in easily twice the awe he once beheld, with a similar g rin, a vaster gash, from a grimmer rim the Grand Canyon of the Colorado never mi nd that his current view was vastly superior, and pondering the eternal predicam ent of the hetero human male who, once expelled from it, is by hormones doomed t o spend the rest of his life trying to get back in; once there, cannot wait to g et back out, again; this greater than the greatest of cats and ironies, as she b ucked and gasped, her first sky-scratching, fighting-for-air orgasm, of several more to come, each of which saw her glow of a more urgent release than the last; then simply lost himself in the soft succor of her shelter. * * * IM DISAPPOINTED! Her voice sounded playful, but he was unsure. Disappointed!? Ha-ha! . . .At what!? At not seeing those catacombs. Of course, I know theyre not just catacomb s, but Im disappointed! Arent you over disappointment, yet!? How old are you? We cant all be supermen; women! Im hardly a superman. Its just that Ive had so much experience with failure Ive had to learn to deal with disappointment. Its a sad but true fact. The alte rnative is unacceptable. Hey! You want to see the catacombs? Her head nodded a s he continued, Tomorrow, maybe. Not tonight! Im going in tonight, and Im going al one!