“The serpent is the vital organ of Christian integrity, the antithesis of good. One can’t face and slay evil without facing the serpent – the signature of evil on Earth.
“Yes sir,” David says. “I see, sir.”
A hand bell rings from the kitchen.
“Lunch is ready,” Emma’s mother says.
Jeremiah and David walk into the kitchen. Emma hands them plates, signaling them to go through the buffet line first. Jeremiah pauses.
“Let’s bow our heads in a word of prayer.
“God of light in a world of darkness. We gave you thanks for illuminating your word for David. Amen.”
“Well, David. Sounds like you two had a good talk,” Emma’s mother says, as David starts serving his plate.
“Yes. I would say we did.”
“David is coming to the service tonight,” Emma’s father says. “He’s going to see what snake handling is all about.”
David clears his throat.
“Is this right?” Emma says.
“Yes, well, yes,” David says. “I… tonight it is. I’ll pick you up this evening for the service, Emma. We will go together.”
Sunday evening, Emma hears David pulling up in the driveway to pick her up from the service. Her parents have already left for the church. She waits until he knocks on the door.
“Good evening, Emma,” he says.
“Good evening.”
“Well, let’s go see what the serpent has to say tonight.”
David reaches for Emma’s right hand, wrapping his around hers as a hold. They walk to the car, hand in hand, but she isn’t clutching his back. Instead, hers hangs in a ball with his wrapped around it.
“You should like it, my touch,” David says. “I have prayed and it is right.”
“I should,” Emma thinks to herself.
At the car, she moves her hand away, and steps toward the back seats. He opens the front passenger’s side door.
“Sit in the front, Emma,” he says.
“Are you sure?” Emma says.
“It’s okay. I insist,” he says.
Riding to the church, she pays careful attention to how David drives the car. Easing his foot on the gas to accelerate. Easing his foot on the brake to slow, and stop. Steering with hands at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock on the wheel.
I can do that, she thinks. Gas, break, and turn the wheel.
Inside the church, she and David sit on the front row with her mother, just as they did at the morning service. Her father’s sermon is on the serpent, explaining why God calls the people to take them in hand, and to speak in tongues when they have them in hand – notes from the similar sermon he gave to David at lunch earlier in the day.
From the pulpit, Emma’s father quotes from Corinthians.
“For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their up building and encouragement and consolation.
"The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up…”
When Emma’s father calls for the Deacons to retrieve the snakes at the end of the service, her mother leaves the sanctuary. She, however, waits with David on the front row as the choir sings verses of “Kingdom is Coming” without music.
The kingdom is coming,
O tell ye the story,
God’s banner exalted shall be!
The earth shall be full of His knowledge and glory,
As waters that cover the sea.
“Amen!” David cries as, upon the final refrain, with hands up in the air, and eyes fixed upon the stained glass window behind the pulpit.
“Amen!” he shouts. “The kingdom is coming!”
As the last voices quiet from song, four Deacons enter from a side door even with the pulpit with Alabama timber rattlesnakes in hand. They grip them in the midsection, and the snakes’ heads dart about, anticipating, it appears, the mounting energy.
“Praise be to God!” shouted Emma’s father. “The serpent, dear people, is with us. Praise be to God!”
“Are you going to do it?” Emma turns and asks David, in a whisper.
“If God calls me, I will,” he says. “Are you?”
“No,” Emma says.
From the back of the church, a middle-aged man, Luther Massingale, is walking at a hurried pace toward Jeremiah, to meet the snakes at the altar at the precise second they arrive with the Deacons. Emma’s father, takes a snake from the first Deacon to arrive at his side with a snake and cries out.