He removed the burlap bag from the box and got an answering rattle for his trouble. As quickly as he could, he walked into the bedroom, pulled back the covers on the bed, then emptied the snake onto it, pulling the covers up again before it could escape. He stood there for a moment, waiting for it to quiet down, then he left, taking the bag and box with him. On the street again, he deposited them both in the same receptacle where he had found the box, then got back into the car and left. He was a couple of blocks away when an ambulance passed him going the other way.

—

Boris Tirov stirred as the late-afternoon sun found him on the terrace, and he began to perspire. He got up and went through the sliding door into the air-conditioned suite and into the bedroom, where he stripped off his clothes. In one motion, he pulled back the covers and lifted one leg to climb into the bed. The rattling froze him for just a moment; he didn’t see the snake until it hit him on the thigh, then withdrew, remaining coiled and still rattling.

Tirov panicked and ran into the living room, looking for a phone.

“Front desk!”

“I’ve been bitten by a rattlesnake!” he shouted into the phone. “I need an ambulance right now!”

“What was that, sir?”

“Rattlesnake bite! Ambulance!”

“Yes, sir, right away.”

Tirov hung up the phone and watched as the snake slithered from the bedroom and headed toward the terrace. The sliding door was still open a few inches, and it moved outside. Tirov ran across the room and closed the door behind it, then he began thinking about his predicament.

He went into the bedroom, treading carefully, lest there were more, undiscovered snakes. He grabbed a necktie from the closet, wrapped it twice around his leg and tightened it. He thought for a moment, What else? You were supposed to suck the wound, weren’t you? But he couldn’t reach his outer thigh to do that.

There was a loud knocking on the door, and he got up to answer it, holding the necktie in place. Before he could reach the door it opened, and a uniformed security guard walked in, to be confronted by a naked man with a necktie wrapped around his leg.

“Did you call an ambulance?” Tirov asked.

“Yes, sir,” the man said, averting his eyes. “Where’s the snake?”

“On the terrace. I want you to suck the poison out.”

The man was appalled. “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know anything about that.”

“You have to suck the poison from my wound, or I’ll die.” He put one foot on a dining chair to make his thigh more accessible. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars.”

“I’m sorry, sir, that’s outside my job description. Is there anything else I can do?”

“Do you have a knife?”