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This time, there was no denying it.
It wasn’t being pulled.
It was moving itself.
The Instinct to Step Back
There’s a moment—right before fear fully kicks in—when your body reacts faster than your thoughts.
I took a step back without consciously deciding to.
My heart rate jumped.
My grip tightened around the mug.
My breath caught.
Every nerve in my body seemed to wake up at once, alert and focused on that single, moving shape in the grass.
Whatever this was, it was not a rope.
Identifying the Unidentified
I stood there longer than I should have, frozen between curiosity and caution.
Part of me wanted to turn and go back inside, lock the door, and pretend I hadn’t seen anything. Another part wanted to understand—to name it, to make it less mysterious, less threatening.
So I watched.
Slowly, carefully, I noticed more details:
The way it curved instead of bending
The way sections moved independently
The subtle rhythm of motion
And then the realization hit.
“Oh. That’s Alive.”
There are few thoughts that land as heavily as that one.
Because once something shifts from “object” to “living thing,” the rules change.
You’re no longer dealing with clutter or debris.
You’re dealing with an animal.
A creature.
Something with instincts of its own.
And suddenly, your garden doesn’t feel like your space anymore.
The Shock of Recognition
As my brain scrambled through possibilities, one image kept surfacing.
A snake.
The word alone was enough to make my stomach tighten.
I had never seen one in my garden before. Not here. Not ever. And yet, the more I watched, the more undeniable it became.
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