The Snake and the Problem

By: Samu Jarvela

There was once a snake. He was a great snake, so long and huge. He was an anaconda, from the Kingdom of Animalia located mostly in South America and in the tropic parts of the world. He has a huge family called the Boidae family. He also belonged to this special group called Chordata, which means that he has a back bone. This family includes many of the constrictor snakes, like his big brother, the python and his parents which are boa constrictors. This anaconda's real name was Eunectes murinus, but he likes to be called Chester.

Chester likes to do many things like hunt for animals several times his size like pigs, small form of crocodiles, called caiman, rodents, fish, or even huge animals or staying in his home, which is a huge swamp.

"Wow, it will be my first day of school!," said Chester, as he was beginning to go to sleep. The next day, he was at school, and he found out that all of the students and the teacher were from another species of snakes, which are the poisonous ones.

"Ok, class, today we will be learning to hunt down animals several times our size with our deadly venom," said the teacher. "What is venom?", said Chester as he only hunted by constricting his prey. The class started to laugh at him, as they all had some venom inside themselves.

The next day, Chester met a friend, named Ralf. Ralf was a venomous snake called the cobra. Ralf the cobra noticed different features about him and Chester. Ralf had venom and Chester didn't. Chester also had a longer and thicker body. Ralf had a more skinny body. Chester used special and different powers of constricting prey while Ralf didn't. Ralf used venom.

Each day, the students made fun of Chester except Ralf. Both Chester and Ralf didn't care about the the teasing as Chester had a unique ability of constriction which allowed him to squeeze the pray and was sometimes even more useful than venom.

One day Chester and Ralf and the rest of the class were on a field trip for hunting animals and Chester just caught a lion in its grip. The class just stood there, watching in awe, as Chester crushed the prey and ate it whole.

The class was amazed, and the teacher applauded. "Good job, Chester! Outstanding job!", said the teacher. Chester suddenly felt really proud of himself and his confidence with his ability that was different from everybody else. Chester was now the star pupil of the class as he took down a lion, an animal so large and famous. Chester had a problem, but now it was solved. He did this by trusting his adaptations that suited it perfectly.

"And that kids, was my story that will last a lifetime.", said Chester. His sons and daughters looked at him as they emerged from the mother. They saw this huge snake, almost the longest snake in the world, sitting right next to them. They were fascinated by his wonderful stories and wondered if they would ever become just like him...

THE END