Elena's Dream from Birthmarks by Bambara

There’s this girl wandering in the woods, following a voice. It leads her to a snake nest. Copperheads, I think. She’s seen these same ones before, when it was cold out and they were dead. But now they’re writhing around. The voice tells her it’s a miracle. They’ve been resurrected. He tells her to put them up to her neck, like right around where my birthmarks are. He says they won’t bite if she’s truly faithful. So she does it, and they bite her like a million times. Then she’s just lying there scared, abandoned, betrayed. I know it’s a dream, but it made me so sad every time I had it.

Then I heard somewhere that copperheads hibernate in the cold. So maybe the snakes were never dead to begin with. No miracle. I tried to remember that every night as I went to sleep. So she would know she was being tricked, but it never worked.
Then the dream stopped coming.

Anyway, you left your jacket here. I’ve been wearing it around a little bit. You can just grab it next time.

• Alternative
• deathrock
• noise pop
• noise rock
• post-punk
• trip hop
• Brooklyn