My fingers worked against Perley’s flesh, and I felt the snake’s teeth punch holes in me, and I saw my blood mix with Perley’s blood but none of it was painful until later. My task was to make the snake loosen its teeth, but the panicked creature kept pulling back. It dragged Perley’s skin wide. When I finally pried the snake free and flung it at the wall, bits of its teeth remained, winking at us like pearls in an oyster. Beneath my hand, my boy’s face lay gaping and raw, his horrible open eye vacant above the wound.

“Call 911,” Helen said.

“I’m a nurse, I can handle this,” I said.

“Perley, can you hear us, Perley, can you say something?” Lily said.

Perley’s small voice returned from a long and lonely journey. “Madcoil,” he said.

“Madcoil,” I answered.

“It was Madcoil,” Perley said, stronger this time, and Lily said, “I’m holding you,” and Perley said, “You’re holding me.”

Direct pressure was the next thing, so I pressed Rudy’s filthy T-shirt to Perley’s cheek. He drew back, which I took as a good sign. Pain meant he wasn’t in shock. “Helen, go boil some water,” I said.

Helen opened her mouth, but I said, “The last thing I need right now is the benefit of your wisdom. You want to be fucking helpful? Then do what I tell you.” She didn’t use the ladder, but swung herself down to the kitchen. The first day I met Helen she’d been useless but for boiling water. That day, we took charge of killing her drakes, and here she was again, filling the pot and setting it on the burner while I gave her a rapid list: alcohol, iodine, tweezers, swabs, bandage. She handed it all up to me. Lily kept Rudy’s shirt on the wound while I cleaned my hole-punched hands. Easily, I dressed them. Then I set to Perley.

“I can get you herbs,” Helen called from the kitchen.

“Don’t interrupt,” I said.

“Plantain,” Helen said. “It says so right here in the Best Practices Binder.”

“I don’t care what you wrote down in that binder of yours,” I said. “Plantain’s no good if there’s infection underneath. He could get an abscess. Yarrow might be the one. It’s antibacterial, pain-relieving, and it’ll stop the bleeding. Sage is a good disinfectant.”

“Both in the garden,” Lily said.