Another snake story

I have a longish sloped driveway, so I usually pick up the mail when I go in and out in the car. This morning I decided to get Fiz i cal and off my derrière and walk ip to retrieve the mail.
I'd spent the weekend on the sit on, and hadn't seen any nasties but needed the stick to get up and down the drive because of crook circulation.
Ah, there we are, the mailbox. And what is sitting at the bottom of the box? What appears to be a young red belly black, about a metre long. Very skinny, bit of orange on the neck, brown/grey on the rest. A bit like an oversized snake lolly.
Bang the stick on the drive and it looks at me. Bang a few more times, and off it goes...hang on it's not going, it's coming! Now it is a black snake isn't it ? I move to a more respectable distance while it wriggles towards the banging stick. Stop banging...ah duh Footy, it moves away. Strange behaviour for a red bellied black.
Retrieve mail carefully and check that it's on its way elsewhere.

Maybe the next time they tell me "the check's in the mail," it can damm well stay there ! LOL