One day when I was a teenager I was in the backyard and stepped off the sidewalk and onto the grass like I had done a hundred times before. After taking a coupl

One day when I was a teenager I was in the backyard and stepped off the sidewalk and onto the grass like I had done a hundred times before. After taking a couple of steps I froze with an uncomfortable feeling and turned around to see that I had stepped over a very large cottonmouth viper. There wasn't any standing water near the house so I guess it had gotten lost or was sick and wandering. I've always remembered how seemingly automatic my reaction was, like I was controlled by some other thing. FWIW I've always hated snakes.