[Children's Books] Nicolas & Nyoka

Upon his return from the safari in Africa, Nicolas finds a huge snake in his bag. Not knowing why, Nicolas does not tell his parents about the snake and manages to live with it during a year. The relationship between boy and snake is dangerous and fascinating, but precarious and strange.

This is a story where the boy's intelligence and instinct overcome every difficulty. Nicolas and the snake share a number of amusing adventures but the boy emerges from this experience with a much improved vision of life and himself. Nicolas would never be sure how the snake got into his suitcase and appeared in his bedroom back home. He could only guess it happened during the last night at the safari camp, when he forgot to zip up the tent. He imagined the snake creeping into the warm tent, sneaking inside his bag, and hiding underneath his clothes where it felt safe and comfortable.

Now, unzipping his bag in his bedroom back home, out popped a terrifying snake's head.

Caught wholly off-guard Nicolas instinctively bolted backwards as far away as he could. Struck rigid by panic, blood rushing madly through his body, a loud drum in his head, and his heart jumping like a frog, he sat on the floor paralyzed with fright.

Nicolas was fearfully aware that he knew nothing that could help him deal with the dangerous looking snake hissing and staring at him from his bag.

Nyoka slithered straight for the lunch bag. Its 120 teeth soon ripped the paper bag to shreds. The snake found the hardboiled egg and gulped it voraciously. The rest of Nicolas's lunch was throughly mauled, reduced to a jumble of half bitten cheese sandwiches, shredded cereal bars and a ripped apple. The whole mess was sticky and soggy from snake spit and orange juice leaking from the gnawed carton.

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