Good Luck Mr. Snowman

One

 "Come on!" Sarah yelled back to me as I chased her.

We were both having fun and laughing, despite the park being virtually empty in the middle of the day. I could understand the lack of people though, it WAS a holiday after all. St. Patrick's Day, the day everyone wears green so they don't get pinched, and also my favorite day of the year. I'd made sure that Sarah and I were both wearing green dresses today, we wouldn't want to get pinched now would we?

I saw Sarah get sidetracked and slow down. She began walking toward the trees with a huge smile on her face. I followed her line of sight and smiled her when I saw the patch of clovers on the ground.

"Trying to find a four-leaf clover now are we?" I asked her with a grin.

She giggled and nodded as she got down on her knees to inspect the green patch. I walked toward her grinning, until I saw something that made fear run up my spine. There was a long green snake slithering around in the short plants.

"Sarah, come here!" I shouted over to her, my heart racing as the snake got closer to her outstretched hand.

I ran over to her, hearing her scream when the snake raised its narrowed green head. She pulled her hands out of the clover patch and backed away a bit too fast for the snake's liking, letting out a high pitched scream. It got into striking position as I reached her. She scrambled back into my awaiting arms just in time to miss the white fangs.

A sharp pain stung the inside of my left wrist, but I ignored it in order to pick Sarah up and race back to my house. I put her down when we got to the doorstep, my breath coming out in short pants.

"I thought four-leaf clovers were supposed to be lucky," Sarah mumbled dejectedly.

I looked at her in surprise, only to see her holding up a small clover with exactly four little leaves on it.

"It IS a lucky clover Sarah, don't you see? You weren't bitten by the snake," I spoke softly with a smile on my face, hiding my arm behind my back so she couldn't see that I had been bitten instead.

"If it was lucky, then why was there a snake?" she asked frowning.

"The snake was protecting it, it probably wanted the lucky clover for itself," I smiled slightly at her.

She smiled as well, satisfied with my answer and clutched the tiny clover in her small six-year-old hands.

There was a knock at the front door not that long later, and Sarah had to go home. I told her to keep her clover safe so that she would be lucky forever. She smiled and hugged me tightly before she left. Her mother gave me some money for babysitting her, and the two were gone.

I removed my hand from behind my back and winced when I saw it swelling. I wrapped the wound to stop the little blood that escaped the two incisions, but aside from that there was nothing more I could do.

Later that night, I sat down on the couch in my sitting room. By now my whole arm was swollen, my head was pounding and I felt weak. Then, my breathing ceased and, no matter how hard I tried to suck in precious oxygen, I couldn't. The snake must have been venomous, but how? There are no snakes that live in this area, much less green ones with venom. Those were my last thoughts as my eyes closed and I was tossed into darkness. My heart stopped beating and I was lost.