Little Lion

This morning in the preschool drop-off line, there suddenly appeared a snake in my car. I knew this because of the (suspiciously preschooler-sounding) hiss emanating from behind my seat. Without warning, another snake joined in from the passenger-side back seat too.

I was surrounded.

"OH NO! A SNAKE! A SNAKE" I called out. "Quick! What would scare a snake? ...A dog!"

So I started barking furiously, even growling, but it was to no avail. Two silly snakes were still coming after me. My dog made fearful whines and ran off.

"What else would scare a snake?" I said. (The snakes laughed at me. They laughed!) "A bear!"

And so I started growling, albeit not very convincingly. I even swung my best paws in the air in the general direction of the snakes' reflections in my rear-view mirror. Did it scare them? Not even a bit. My bear lost its bluster and ran to hide in the bushes.

I was running out of options.

"OH NO! HELP! What will scare a snake?" I said as I pulled up one car length. I was genuinely out of ideas.

"I know!" the 5-year-old offered helpfully as I stopped the car near the preschool school door. "A LION!" And with that he stopped hissing and let out a seriously ferocious lion roar.

The one remaining snake got scared and ran off.

Having saved the day, my brave little lion got out and ran happily into school -- the hero of his own story.