“This is ridiculous ... You really had to black out now, huh?!”

   The girl had tried to prevent the guy that was supposed to be her savior from collapsing in front of her, but she could only soften his fall slightly.

   “Hello?! The snake bit me, not you!”

   On her knees, she leaned her ear against his chest. She could hear a feeble but regular heartbeat.

   Kate. Was that her name? Impossible. She didn’t like that name.

   “Kate ...” the man murmured. He was slowly getting back to consciousness.

   “Come on, wake up. You can do it”, she said with a note of emotion in her voice.

   The man opened his eyes. Their color could easily compete with the blue of the sky – maybe it would even defeat it.

   Those eyes looked at the girl and suddenly shone with awareness.

   The man tried to get up, but stopped halfway, leaning on his elbows with an expression of pain drawn on his face.

   “Don’t move. Just stay still”, she said.

   “What happened?” he asked, clearing his throat.

   Instinctively, the girl got back to pressing her right wrist.

   “You fainted.  Your hand was on your chest and … you said a name. Kate. Was it a memory?”

   “The snake!” he exclaimed, slowly lifting his torso. “You said a snake bit you! Let me see.”

   The girl uncovered her wrist, showing him the wound. She could barely see two little red dots on her skin.

   “What ... what kind of snake was it? How were its eyes?” he asked, trying to get up. The girl held him back.

   “Don't move. You still need to recover.”

   “I'm fine. Now show me that snake.”

   “It was there, on that branch,” she said, pointing to the tree full of green fruits. “But it must have run away. I can’t see it anymore ... Stay still, please, you could make it worse.”

   He finally obeyed. However, he was hating that situation – she could see it in his eyes. He wished he could do more, but it seemed that his chest still hurt.

   “Give me your hand,” he spoke, gasping thoroughly. “Let me see.”

      Yet, little by little, his breathing was becoming more and more regular.

   The girl accepted to show him her wrist. The one that the snake had bit so quickly and mercilessly. At the beginning, she had only felt a little pinch, but now pain was pulsing along with her dilated veins. It was sharper and persistent and was spreading on the whole surface of the tingly hand.

   His eyes seemed to gain back their lucidity in the moment they started to examine her wound. He closed them for a few seconds, clearly trying to remember something. He was moving his lips, at first without making any sound, then hissing some words compulsively.

   “Bright colors, mean fowlers … Sharp ... Sharp head and you’ll be dead …”

   “What ... What are you talking about?” she asked, worried. All she needed now was that he started to talk nonsense.

   The man opened his eyes. She could see a new awareness in his look, like he had just gained a bit of his clarity of thought after a long delirious period. Yet, a sparkle hidden deep inside his dilated pupils seemed to express a growing uneasiness.

   “What color was the snake? How was its head?” he then asked, in a milder tone than she expected. Meanwhile, he was taking off his t-shirt with his eyes still on hers.

   “What are you doing?” she asked, frowning.

   “Keep your arm down. And don’t touch the wound, it could get infected.”

   All he was wearing now was a black undershirt that highlighted his well-toned torso. Had he just decided to expose the skin of his strong arms to the ferocity of the mosquitoes?

   He ripped a piece of fabric from the t-shirt and rolled it around the girl’s right wrist, making a slight knot.

   “This should keep the wound clean,” he added, carefully releasing the girl’s arm. “Now tell me, what do you remember about the appearance of the snake?”

   Instead of answering, she kept staring at him confused. He knew... He knew those things. He certainly remembered something. And then there was Kate ...

   “Don’t worry. It was surely harmless,” he said with the same calm voice. She could sense some hesitation though. “But I need to know how it looked like. I remembered something about ... About snakes. Someone ... Someone had taught me some kind of rhymes so that I could tell dangerous snakes from harmless ones more easily.”

   “So, you remember ... something?” she asked, curling her lips in an uncertain smile. As he nodded, her face grew serious: “Are you sure? Do you really know something about this jungle? Tell me, please, am I dying? It was green. The snake was green. A bright green. Or maybe just green. And the head ... Damn it, I can’t remember. Sharp, you said? Maybe ... It depends on what you mean by sharp. And, yeah ... my wrist hurts me a bit, it’s almost numb, but ...”

   Unexpectedly, he took her hands in his and stared straight into her eyes. He smiled, but his smile was cold, almost formal. He seemed worried, even though it was clear that he was trying to hide it from her.

   “Calm down, you’re not in danger,” he said then, his voice a little hoarse. “No reason to panic. From your ... description, the snake doesn’t seem to be dangerous.”

   The girl turned toward the tree whose inviting fruits had almost killed her … She immediately saw the analogy with Adam and Eve’s forbidden apple.

   “But … But I thought you said bright colors, mean … something,” she murmured, while keeping her gaze on the tree. “The snake that bit me was green, a bright green, yes. Isn’t it bright enough?” She turned back to the man who was definitely trying to hide something from her.

   “Of course, but there are exceptions ...”

   “Please don’t lie to me!”

   The girl took her hands away from his and touched the bandaged wrist. She held back a sob while scanning her dirty pajama with wet lucid eyes.

   A feeling of helplessness took control of her.

   “No, listen to me. I don’t want to lie to you,” he said, moving closer to her. “But I don’t want you to panic. It wouldn’t be good for you.”

   “I think that your idea of what is good for me is a bit unrealistic!” she exclaimed, laughing nervously. “I am already panicked! I don’t know if I’m being clear enough ... I wake up in the middle of a forest without even remembering my name, without knowing how I got here or why I’m here, I get bitten by a potentially poisonous snake – no, let’s say, definitely poisonous – and I could die any moment now and who knows how’s death by poisoning, maybe it will slowly paralyze my body and I’ll suffocate in my own saliva, or blood who knows, well, it makes no difference because I will die anyway, right? Without even remembering if there’s someone out there who will miss me. But come to think of it, maybe it’s better this way, at least I won’t see my normal and happy life flash in front of my eyes while I’m dying. And you’re telling me not to panic!”

   At this point, he must have thought she was crazy. He was looking at her with a gaze that couldn’t express anything else. Yet, for a second, it seemed she could see her own sad story reflected in the blue of that man’s eyes.