Meanwhile, Lanmo wasn’t finished. He altered himself again to become the shape of a golden cobra. Cobras, as you will know, have a broad hood that they spread to either side of their head and neck. They also enjoy rearing up impressively and perhaps hissing, and some can even spit venom if they are annoyed. Lanmo was still extremely annoyed, you’ll remember, and so he had decided to become a magnificent cobra as tall as a tall grown-up. For a few moments this meant that everyone in the playground couldn’t avoid seeing him very clearly for what he was. Even the headmaster, glancing out of his office window, was unable to stop himself noticing that there was a giant glimmering golden cobra rising from the dirty tarmac of the playground. The sight of it made him want to lie down at once until everything went back to normal, and so he hid under his desk. Once he was there, he shut his eyes and pretended that nothing was wrong so hard that he was never quite the same again.
Down in the playground, Lanmo was ignoring the children who were now running up and down and screaming and waving their arms about in highly satisfying ways. He was peering into the eyes of the Very Attractive Girl who had been so rude to Mary. As a result of this, the Very Attractive Girl couldn’t move. She could only stare back.
And Lanmo gently, gently opened his mouth and let the world see his needle teeth that were as white as bones.
‘No,’ said Mary. ‘Please, Lanmo.’ And she reached out her hand to stop the snake from perhaps doing something wicked.
Lanmo was so furious that he didn’t quite notice Mary in time to stop himself as he darted his head forwards and so his smallest, smallest tooth just brushed the edge of her right hand.
And so then Mary fell.
Mary woke up at home in her own little bed. She felt tired, but also really hungry and excited. It was dark, so a number of hours must have passed since she was in the playground. Over to her left, when she looked about, she could see the glow of Lanmo’s eyes. He was no longer in the form of a vast and terrifying cobra. He was perhaps a bit smaller than usual and he seemed thinner. He wriggled gently towards her and rubbed his warm forehead against her ear. Then he said to her in his best and kindest voice, ‘I am so sorry. I was angry.’
‘What happened? Did I faint?’
‘That is what the grown-ups have decided to think. They have told everyone that cobras never come to this country and are never golden or as tall as a tall grown-up when they stand. They have decided that nothing especially unusual happened today, or could ever happen, and that everyone must have been asleep and dreaming the same dream. The school will now give pupils new tests on standing up, falling over and sleeping. There will also be Dream Examination Forms to take home and fill in so that all possibly dangerous dreams can be recorded and monitored. And the headmaster has retired to take up beekeeping.’
Mary nodded. ‘Yes, I suppose all that would happen. Those are the kinds of things they would do.’ Children are good at understanding grown-ups, but grown-ups are rarely able to understand children, which is odd because they have already been children and ought to remember what it’s like.
Lanmo whispered, ‘Your mother and father were worried about you. They borrowed the school janitor’s wheelbarrow and brought you home in it and then they put you to bed. They have only just left you, because I pushed the idea into their heads that you are all better now and they can leave you be and go to sleep.’
‘Am I better?’
The snake rubbed her ear again. ‘My bite is a serious bite. I am so sorry. Even brushing my littlest tooth with your hand was enough to take the colour from twenty-one of your lovely hairs. When you look tomorrow you will see that you have a white streak now, going back from your forehead.’ He paused. ‘It will be something to talk about when you are older and will seem dramatic.’ He paused again. ‘I truly am very sorry. Your white hairs show that I have taken a tiny piece of your livingness from you.’
But Mary was very young and full of livingness so this did not worry her. ‘Am I better now, though?’
‘You are as better as humans get.’
‘Will you stay with me? I like you. Only maybe you shouldn’t go to school with me again. In case anyone else is nasty to me and makes you cross.’
‘I think you will find that no one is nasty to you at school, not ever again. They will be very polite to you from now on,’ said the snake, sounding as boastful as he usually did. Only then he whispered more gloomily, ‘I will stay until the morning, but then I will go away for a while.’
This worried Mary much more than having twenty-one white hairs. ‘Why?’
‘I am going because I feel guilty and I have never felt guilty before. I harmed you. I have to think about this until I understand it.’
‘Well, how long will it take you to think? And where will you think and will it be nice and will you be able to get cheese there?’ asked Mary, because the snake was her friend.
‘I will be safe. I am never in danger,’ said Lanmo, making all of those words seem a bit sad.
‘You didn’t mean to hurt me. And I don’t really mind.’ Mary imagined her white streak and how it would be an exciting thing and pictured herself being a remarkable woman in exploring clothes and adventuring boots with her dramatic hair blowing about in the wind on the top of a mountain she had just climbed.
Lanmo sighed, tasting her thoughts with his clever tongue. ‘Yes, being an explorer with a white streak in your hair would be exciting. You may say that you were changed by an encounter with an extraordinary and beautiful snake if you like.’
‘Oh, no,’ replied Mary. ‘I will say it was caused by a shark bite.’
‘As you wish. Although some of my finest acquaintances are sharks. Sleep now, though, because you should rest.’
‘But I don’t wa—’ began Mary, because she would rather have talked all night to Lanmo and persuaded him not to go away. But he had persuaded her with his eyes that she should sleep. He was extremely persuasive.
When it was dawn and Mary woke, Lanmo was snuggled under her chin, all warm like a little scarf. She felt him wriggle as if he were pretending to be cheerful and not quite managing. Then he slipped along to rest on her pillow and look at her. ‘You may kiss my nose if you wish.’
Mary did so, frowning a little because this seemed like goodbye.
‘You must now take care of yourself for a while. Try to ignore your teachers without offending them. And do not talk to any other snakes. And avoid lions. And sharks. You will find that the girls like you now, although you will discover most of them are boring to speak with and quite unpleasant. Their eggs must have had nothing at all written inside them. You might enjoy talking to the ginger-headed boy called Paul. And when you eat cheese you can think of me . . . And when the sun sets I will wish you sweet dreams and you will have them. That is how you will know I am thinking of you and that you are my friend and I am yours.’
‘Well, when will you come back?’
‘When I have learned not to be angry.’
‘Do you still feel guilty?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why should you be guilty when I have forgiven you and I would like you to stay?’
‘I don’t know, but I think that is how being guilty works. I will return as soon as I can.’ And then the snake shimmered all his scales so that he looked especially beautiful to remember and he flickered his tongue at her ear and he sighed. After that he was gone.