Lori Wallace is sitting on a couch with her 11-year-old son and his new pet snake. It's burrowing under his armpit, as if it were afraid. But Wallace says it's not.
"If he was terrified, he would be balled up," Wallace says. "See, that is why they are called ball pythons. When they are scared, they turn into a little ball."
Wallace is dying of breast cancer, but a stranger couldn't tell. She has a pixie haircut and a warm tan. She is vibrant and chatty and looks you right in the eyes when she talks. Wallace doesn't shy away from what is happening to her. She shows me her cracked feet. They bleed from the chemotherapy pills she takes.
