This is the memory palace. I'm Nate D'Ameyau.

No animals were harmed in the production of this episode.

What happened with the second one was there were these kids playing in the backyard.

August 1953, Springfield, and Missouri.

So maybe they're playing catch for attending their stand-usual.

Or better yet, there's a sprinkler sweeping lazy arcs.

The sun-making rainbows and the spray is the kids jump through getting soaked and laughing.

And the dog, some bulldog mix, is rooting something out of the shrubs by the fence

that separates their house from Mr. Mourers.

And then the dog's going crazy.

And he's got hold of something he's thrashing his head.

Then a black snake flies through the air and lands in the grass.

And the kids start screaming.

And their father busts through the screen door and bounds down the back steps.

These are the foothills of the Ozarks and snakes here can kill you.

But dads lived here his whole life and knows what to do with the snake.

So he grabs a hoe, he swings it up, he swings it down, and that's that.

Kids head back into the house, dog calms down.

And the dad goes to clean up the bloody mess and has a start.

Never seen a snake like that before.

Causes neighbor over, a guy across the street who looks at the body and says,

huh, it killed one of those with a hole last week too.

...