A snake story

Yesterday was a busy snake day for Steve and Emma. Katie and Emma were walking down their porch stairs to pick up the girls from school when Katie told Emma to get back on the porch because there was a snake at the bottom. She called Steve down at John's and told him to get home and kill the snake. He was there in about 3 seconds and killed a 5 foot water moccasin. Two hours later Haley, Emma, Lisa and Sophie went out to get eggs. It had been raining so they all needed to put on rubber "egg" shoes. Haley and Emma put theirs on but Lisa couldn't find a pair to wear. They decided Lisa and Sophie would stay outside the fence and Haley and Emma would get the eggs. I was in the LR when I heard 3 girls screaming. Haley was screaming "oh, my gosh", Lisa was screaming "MOM", and Emma was just screaming. Sophie was perfectly calm.  I knew it was a snake. I got to the kitchen door and Steve was already there! He had been in Grandpa's back yard with him. I looked out and saw Steve wrestling with the snake! Really! He was on his knees and was trying to pull the snake out of the nest box. He would pull back and a bit of the snake would show and then the snake would disappear completely into the box with Steve's arms. I asked him what he was doing and he said the snake didn't want to come out. He said it was 4 1/2 to 5 feet long and told me to get my pistol. I got the gun and realized there was no way I was going over there to give it to Steve. Some how we got it to him. A minute later the snake was dead. Steve was still holding onto the tail and shot it in the head. YUCK! It was huge! I couldn't believe it even fit in the nest box! After all the excitement the girls told me Emma had the basket and was getting the eggs. She was scared and wanted Haley to go with her in case there was a chicken sitting on top of the eggs. She opened the door to the nest box and there was no chicken. All was well so she started collecting eggs. Haley was coming by to help and saw the snake 2 inches from Emma staring at her. How in the world did Emma not see the snake? Good question, know one will ever know. The screaming began...