Benny curled his mouth when he talked about them. He wasn’t a fan. That spoke well for how he believed snakes should be treated. For all I didn’t like them, I didn’t believe in animal cruelty.
“How long do snakes live in captivity?” said Christopher.
“About twenty years,” said Benny. “The article said Pentecost snakes only last three to four months. I won’t sell to them.”
“How serious are the bites without antivenom?” Christopher circled back to what I wanted to learn from an expert. Information online was varied and often contradictory.
“Painful,” said Benny. “Sometimes fatal if not treated. Depends on the size and age of the individual. There’s a reason they make antivenom.”
“What about the spiders?” Christopher waved his hand toward the tarantulas.
My eyes followed one, and its slow movement across its heated tank. Its fur looked redder than the ones I’d seen before. They could be quick when hunting. I remembered camping and playing Jenga at the picnic table in the dark when I was young. When the tower fell, pieces fell under the table. Dad moved the light so I could collect them, and seven or eight tarantulas had been under the table. They’d been there all along. Seeing so many tarantulas brought back the memory.
“With the smaller spiders, often people don’t know they’ve been bit,” said Benny. “Varies from itching, swelling, and pain, to occasionally death if untreated.”
“No radioactive spider bites, though.”
Christopher looked relaxed, in his element talking to someone. He leaned in to listen to Benny, his body loose and comfortable. I envied that ability. I’d always had trouble talking to strangers.
Benny laughed. “Yeah, no Spiderman.”
This was closer to the truth. It hadn’t been on my list, but it wasn’t far from what Brandon may have been trying to create. Using venom to give someone abilities. Christopher was smart to lead the conversation in this direction, just to gauge Benny’s reaction.
“For the scorpions, how long does the venom effect usually last?”
“About seventy-two hours,” said Benny. “But it depends on the concentration, the size of the sting, and the victim. For an adult human, they’d have numbness, tingling in affected regions, vomiting. If the victim had a powerful reaction, like an allergy, they could lose consciousness, maybe permanently.”
Benny’s words stuck with me. Perhaps Brandon was having an allergic reaction to the venom in his serum. I wanted to interrupt in my excitement, but Christopher was on a roll.
“Why collect these?” Christopher indicated the surrounding room. “No offense intended. I’m just curious. It’s an impressive collection and I can tell you take care of your creatures.”
Benny, who’d started to hackle at the question, settled with Christopher’s final statement.
“I’ve always thought they were cool and misunderstood. They get a bad rap.” Benny glanced around the room and nodded.
His pride in his collection was apparent. He’d wanted us to see them because he was proud and he wanted to share his interest.
“Is there still a market for their venom?” said Christopher, “And if so, what outfits buy it? Labs? Universities?”
“Pretty select now. Mostly companies doing medical research, though they can synthesize their own from DNA coding. They like to have authentic samples from time to time. Maybe to compare it to the fake stuff?”
“They make synthetic venom?” said Christopher, pretending this was news.
“Yeah, it’s pretty new, ground-breaking,” said Benny. “Lots of medical research uses venom.”
“That’s interesting,” said Christopher. “Could someone inject venom into a human and cause a permanent change to their nervous system?”
“No way.” Benny laughed. “Just in science fiction. We’re back to Spiderman territory. Even in comics, it was accidental. As far as I know, all the research is medical. Now that they can make the fake venom, they’re experimenting on treatment for diseases like cancer.”
Unless he was a convincing liar, he knew no more than we did about the lab tests for the military.
“We appreciate you answering our questions,” said Christopher. “Any idea where we could buy antivenom?”
Benny narrowed his eyes, looking between us. “Who did you say you work for?”
We hadn’t discussed it, but Christopher told a portion of the truth.
“We work for the Portland Museum of Science and we’re thinking of putting together a display. Nothing living, of course,” he said. “We wanted to see a bunch of the venomous reptiles, spiders, and scorpions that are native to North America. Ask an expert some things we’ll get asked by our boss or include on the display plaques.”
