I thought I made my last "Snakes on a ..." joke

Today I was running with my iPod cranked. Admittedly, the song on loop was "Livin' la vida loca." I know. So a bicyclist blows past me, and I'm 1) embarrassed to be listening to 1998's Ricky Martin tinky-tinky-woot song and 2) intrigued by an odd thickness around the cyclist's neck.

I sped up to check it out, and saw it was a huge snake looped around his neck, the scales looking smooth next to the deep red grains in his neck. The curl of its tail hung near his stomach, and its small head bobbed underneath the biker's chin. His face was red and mean in a blank way; the snake curled just right to give me the eeby-jeebies. And just as he turned his head to find me in pursuit, as I saw the snake's small head follow his gaze, I thought maybe sometimes it pays not to look twice.