“I don’t know about that. My brother might have let me fall,” I said.

Juan chuckled. “Yeah, maybe.”

Oh, how I loved his smile. In truth, I loved everything about him. He was the only boy in the region who paid me any attention. Other boys just wanted to play with Alberto since they didn’t think I was capable of doing fun things, like climb trees or fish. But Juan was different. He always found ways to include me in his games with Alberto, and if my brother’s mean friends would leave me alone, Juan would come find me or invent a game where I could partake. He even taught me how to swim. I was so lucky to have him as a neighbor. But I shouldn’t fool myself—he’d only held my hand so I wouldn’t fall and drown. He was just being a decent person.

“What do you have in there?” I asked, peeking into the box. It was filled with stones and leaves.

With his stick, he shuffled the stones exposing a long snake.

I cringed.

This topped it all. I’d known Juan to collect frogs and lizards. He even had a black widow spider once because he was fascinated by the fact that she would kill the male after mating.

I was so embarrassed every time he mentioned mating, even if it was between insects. Especially now with my unrequited devotion for him.

I never minded his collections before, but those animals never hurt anyone. They were just ugly to look at, but interesting. Snakes, on the other hand, scared me ever since I’d heard from one of the maids that the carpenter’s son had died of a poisonous bite.

“Her name is Lola,” he said, as if he was talking about a family friend.

The snake had a beautiful pattern in red and black. I was strangely attracted to this creature, more so than the black widow he’d already discarded.

“Is she friendly?” I said.

“As friendly as snakes can be.” He shrugged. “Usually this type of snake doesn’t like to be near humans, but Lola is different. She lets me touch her sometimes.”

“Can I?”

He knelt beside the box, setting the stick on the ground. Very slowly, he reached out for her and rubbed her.

“It’s me, Lola,” he said. “Want to meet my friend?”

The snake remained still. Juan turned toward me and grabbed my hand. My heart did a flip.

I crouched beside him and he guided my fingers toward the snake’s body, which was softer than I’d ever imagined. And so cold.

“I like her,” I said.

“I think she likes you, too.”

After a moment, Lola slid away from us and hid behind a rock in the corner of the box. Juan helped me stand and dropped my hand.

“You look different today,” he said.

“Different, how?”

“I don’t know. Older.”