“David?” she says. “David? It’s cold in here. What’s going on?”
Emma gets the window down and pulls her fingers away from it, crouching outside the house. Moments later, she’s sure David’s mother has found him.
“Eeeeeeeeeeee,” David’s mother cries out.
Emma clutches the black bag and darts toward the truck. There, she sits in the driver’s seat for a moment watching the house. When she sees lights come on, she has a thought.
“Merry Christmas David,” Emma thinks.
She had a gift for David after all -- a hand job and a bite.
Emma starts the truck and drives away.
She stores the truck back in the bushes down the dirt road on the Denton farm, gets back into her bed, and falls fast asleep, just hours before sunrise is due on Christmas morning.
16.
The Line of Duty
Knocking at the door awakens Emma.
“Jeremiah,” she hears her mother call. “Get the door.”
Who could be at the house so early Christmas morning? Emma wonders.
She rubs here eyes, and glances at her body spread on top of the covers. She’s still wearing her dress. She looks on the floor and sees the bag she made from the black material. Emma sits up quickly as she hears her father walking to answer the door.
“Just a minute,” her father shouts, when the knocking repeats before he can get there.
Emma folds the black material and puts it in her to dresser drawer, hangs up her jacket and her dress in the closet, pulls on a green night gown that reaches to her ankles from a drawer, and slips into house slippers.
She takes two bobby pins from a small bowl on top of her dresser and pins back her hair behind her ears.
She hears her father open the door and greet the sheriff and deputy.
Emma knows she will be needed, so she heads for the parlor, arriving just as the guests come in.
“Sheriff Smith, Deputy Cagle – Merry Christmas,” her father says.
“Merry Christmas Reverend,” the sheriff says.
“What brings you out so early on this day? I dare say nobody should be working on the day of Christ’s birth unless it is an emergency.”
“That it is, Reverend,” the sheriff says. “That it is. Or trust me, we wouldn’t be here.”
Emma is standing in the parlor doorway as the sheriff and deputy are taking a seat on the couch.
“Emma,” her father says. “I don’t think nightclothes are appropriate dress for a lady when guests are here.”
“I heard a knock,” Emma says. “I wanted to see who it was. Christmas morning and all.”
“Actually, Reverend, this involves her,” the sheriff says. “It’s fine if she wants to change first, but we need to talk with her in the room since we have some difficult news to share.”
“Difficult news?” Emma asks.
“Yes, ma’am. Not exactly a good tidings we bring.”
“I see,” Emma says. “I think it’s important to hear them out father. I can change later.”
Emma takes a seat on a chair across from the sheriff and deputy. She hikes the hem on her gown to just below her knees, revealing the smooth, pale skin of her lower legs to the deputy, who keeps his eyes fixated on her.
“It seems there has been an accident, Reverend,” the sheriff says. “An accident involving your snakes.”
“My snakes?”
“Yes, your snakes. Billy, why don’t you explain. And you might want to brace yourselves, especially you, young lady.”
The deputy pulls out a small notepad from his shirt pocket. He starts reading from notes.
“At approximately 3 a.m. on December 25 the sheriff’s office received a call from a Reverend Samuels, who reported that one hour before, at their house in Henegar, Mrs. Samuels heard a commotion and went to check it out.
“The Reverend said Mrs. Samuels went to the room of David, her son, since the noise seemed to come from there,” the deputy continues. “Apparently it did, since the Reverend reports that Mrs. Samuels turned on the light to find two rattlesnakes were in the bed with David, her son. Seemed found some pleasure from the snakes.”
Emma’s father looks at her. Emma’s mother, standing in the doorway between the parlor and the kitchen, lets out a wail.
“Oh, no,” she cries, covering her mouth.
Emma doesn’t flinch.
"Pleasure?" Emma's father asks.
"You don't want to go there sir," the deputy says. “The Reverend said Mrs. Samuels yelled for her son to get up. But he did not. The Reverend said Mrs. Samuels saw that her son was white as a ghost. No color in his body at all. She could see a mark on his neck.
“The Reverend says Mrs. Samuels got him out of the bed. He went to the bedroom, saw the snakes, got a broom stick, opened the window, dropped them out the window, and then checked on his son.