The first thing I noticed was its colour. I’ve seen rattlesnakes before, and most of them were brown or grey, with darker patterns along their backs. But this one was almost white, with a strange yellowish tint to its skin that made it look as though somebody had covered it in a thin layer of dust.

It was lying in the grass, right beside a large stone, and for some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The snake wasn’t moving, but I knew it was alive. I could see its head, the thick body curled up behind it, and the little rattle at the end of its tail.

I wanted to get away from it. Every sensible thought in my head was telling me to turn around and leave, but my legs wouldn’t move. I stood there, staring at the snake, while it slowly raised its head and looked straight at me.

Then its tail began to rattle.

I woke up with my heart pounding and my bedsheet tangled around my legs. For a few seconds, I was convinced the snake was still there, somewhere close to my feet, and I actually leaned over the side of the bed to check the floor.

Of course, there was nothing.

I sat there for a while, feeling rather ridiculous. I’d dreamed about a snake. That was all. People dreamed about strange things every night, and there was no reason to make a big deal out of it. Still, I couldn’t quite forget the colour of its skin, or the way it had looked at me just before I woke up. Eventually, I went back to sleep.

The next morning, my brother came looking for me shortly after breakfast. He was in a good mood, as usual, and wanted to go for a walk. I, on the other hand, had slept badly and was hoping for a quiet morning at home.

“Come on, it’s a beautiful day,” he said.

“Then go enjoy it.”

“By myself?”

“You’re a grown man. I’m sure you’ll manage.”

He laughed and told me I was becoming terribly lazy, which was rather unfair considering that he had woken me up before I was ready to get out of bed. I told him I had things to do, and after a little more arguing, he finally gave up.

“Fine. I’ll go alone.”

He was already heading for the door when I suddenly felt uncomfortable. I couldn’t explain it. There was nothing unusual about my brother going for a walk, and I certainly wasn’t worried about him getting lost. But the thought of letting him leave without me bothered me enough that I called after him. “Wait. I’ll come with you.”

He turned around. “I thought you were busy?”

“I changed my mind.”

“Well, hurry up, then.”

I grabbed my things and followed him outside, still wondering why I’d agreed to go.

We hadn’t been walking for very long before I began to enjoy myself. The weather was lovely, the air was warm, and my brother had already found several things to complain about, which meant he was having a perfectly good time. We talked about work, people we knew, and a neighbour who had apparently managed to offend half the town over something so unimportant that neither of us could remember what the argument had originally been about.

At one point, my brother insisted that I had misunderstood the whole story.

“You weren’t even there,” I reminded him.

“Neither were you.”

“That’s never stopped you from having an opinion.”

He laughed, and we continued along the path, still arguing about the neighbour.

The ground was uneven in places, with patches of dry grass growing between stones and low bushes. My brother was walking slightly ahead of me, turning his head now and then as he spoke, while I followed a step or two behind.

I was about to answer something he’d said when I noticed a pale shape in the grass beside his foot. At first, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. It seemed to be part of the ground, perhaps a twisted root or a piece of old wood. Then I saw the curve of a thick body, and just beyond it, a triangular head.

My brother lifted his foot.

“STOP!” I grabbed his arm and pulled him backward so hard that he stumbled into me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Look down!”

He turned, annoyed, and followed my finger towards the grass. A rattlesnake was lying exactly where he had been about to put his foot.

For a moment, neither of us moved. The snake had raised its head, and its body was curled tightly beneath it. Then we heard the rattle, a dry, rapid buzzing that seemed terribly loud now that we knew what was making it.

My brother stared at the creature, then looked at the place where his foot would have landed.

“Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah.”

“I nearly stepped on it.”

“I noticed.”

He took another careful step backward, and I followed him, keeping my eyes on the snake. It stayed where it was, watching us, and I had absolutely no intention of finding out what it would do if we came any closer.

Once we’d put some distance between ourselves and the creature, my brother stopped and bent forward, resting his hands on his knees. “Well,” he said after a moment, “that was close.”

“You’re welcome.”

He looked up at me and laughed nervously. “You could have warned me without trying to rip my arm off.”

“I’ll try to be more polite next time.”

“Please do.”

We were both laughing now, partly because the danger had passed and partly because neither of us quite knew what else to do. My brother rubbed his arm, looked back towards the snake, and suggested that perhaps we’d had enough fresh air for one morning.

I agreed.

But before we turned around, I wanted one last look at the creature. It had begun to move away from the path, sliding slowly through the grass, and now that it was no longer coiled up, I could see more of its body. Something about it bothered me. Most rattlesnakes I’d seen had dark patterns that made them difficult to spot among rocks and dry leaves. This one was different. Its skin was unusually pale, almost white, with a yellowish tint and faint grey markings along its back.

I stared at it. I knew that colour. I’d seen it before, and very recently, although I couldn’t immediately remember where.

Then I thought about the nightmare. The grass. The stone. The snake lying perfectly still. That strange pale skin, so unlike any rattlesnake I’d ever encountered. It was the snake I’d dreamed about the night before.

“What’s wrong?” my brother asked.

I didn’t answer immediately. I was still watching the creature disappear into the grass, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

“I had a dream last night,” I finally said.

“About what?”

“A rattlesnake.”

He looked at me. “You’re joking.”

“No. I dreamed about a rattlesnake lying in the grass, and it looked exactly like that one. Even the colour was the same.”

My brother glanced back towards the place where the snake had disappeared. “That’s a pretty strange coincidence.”

“There’s something else.”

“What?”

“I didn’t want to come with you this morning. Remember?”

“Of course. You made that perfectly clear.”

“I was going to let you go alone. But when you were leaving, I suddenly had this feeling that I should come along. I don’t know why. I just felt that I had to.”

My brother stopped smiling. For a while, we stood there looking at each other, neither of us quite knowing what to say. Then he looked down at the ground where the snake had been, and I could see him thinking about how close he’d come to stepping on it. Eventually, we started walking home.

We talked a little on the way back, but neither of us mentioned the neighbour again. My brother occasionally looked down at the path in front of him, and I couldn’t blame him. I was doing exactly the same thing. I kept thinking about the dream, and about the moment when I’d changed my mind and decided to accompany him. If I’d stayed home, my brother would have been walking alone. He would have been looking around, enjoying the weather, perhaps thinking about whatever it was he’d been telling me when I noticed the snake. And there would have been nobody behind him to shout.

I still don’t know why I dreamed about that particular rattlesnake, or why I felt so strongly that I ought to go walking with my brother the next morning. But I know one thing. I was very glad I’d listened to that feeling.

This story is based on a true account collected by Andrew Lang in his book The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897). Of course, dreams are rarely as straightforward as this one. Most of the time, they speak to us through strange images, unusual situations, and symbols that aren’t always easy to understand. If you’re curious about what your own dreams might mean, you can explore our Dream Interpretation Library and look up the symbols you’ve encountered. And if you’ve ever woken up from a long, confusing dream and wondered how on earth to make sense of it all, our guide Dreams That Wake You Up will teach you how to decode your dreams step by step. Click here to learn more. Thank you for reading, and sweet dreams!