—

Looking around the New England Reptile Expo, I decided I wasn’t one of these people.

Older men examined crickets, kids clutched Tupperwares of geckos, but the crowd seemed mostly twenty-to-forty-year-olds trapped in a mall-Goth-teenager phase. Baggy black pants. Dark dyed hair. Clothing from Hot Topic. Tattoos of reptiles. Live snakes around arms. Piercings. Lizards on shoulders. Pasty skin. Glazed eyes.

“I bet most of these people listen to Marilyn Manson,” my boyfriend, Richie, whispered.

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