As my eight year old grandson, Huck, has a passion for snakes, and knowing that I had a weakness for all tortoise related creatures, I was coerced into watching a documentary on reptiles with him.
While my attention was helter skelter with his siblings deciding that they wanted to snuggle and watch as well, blankets and pillows beings hoisted and positioned, I missed the introduction of the snake park in Chennai. Huck nudged me to LOOK because there was someone de-venoming a cobra. I looked up and shrieked “BREEZY!!!!!”. All eyes on me, but not surprised as they are all used to strange and interesting tales coming from me.
Breezy Whitaker, otherwise known as Romulus Whitaker, was my brother’s room-mate in the boarding school that we went to in India. I was seven years old when I first went ‘in’ and was devastated at being left by my parents. My oldest brother, Byron, was a high school senior, and took me under his wing during my adjustment period. He snuck me into his dormroom to stay with him, and his rapscallion handsome room-mate, Breezy, vacated his lower bunkbed on my behalf. The only catch was that Breezy’s 11-foot python slept in a basket under my bed, wrapped around a parrot that was his friend, and I needed to be fine with this.
Between Breezy’s twinkle and the fact that now I could be in on a big secret and make friends with a parrot, my initial hurt in being without parents was softened.
Oh life! Here with my grand babes, lifetimes later, Breezy!!!! Smiling and talking about all of his snakes and crocodiles and rainforests, in my daughter’s living room.