Page 46 of The Killing Plains

“Satchel, it’s okay—just stand still.” Colly worked to sound calm. “Russ, I’m not hurt. Something fell on me—it’s in the car.”

Russ tilted her face into the light and pulled up her eyelids with his thumb to check her pupils. Apparently satisfied, he nodded. “Wait here.”

He picked up a lap blanket from one of the rocking chairs and threw it around her shoulders, then turned and descended the porch steps.

Brenda was now out of the van and running towards the house.

Colly waved her off. “Keep the kids back.”

Brenda nodded. Satchel was standing a little apart from his cousins, his teeth chattering. Colly gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’ll be right there, buddy. Wait with Aunt Brenda.”

Russ had ducked into the van’s front passenger seat and was groping blindly on the floorboards. “What the—? Brenda, got a flashlight?”

“In the glovebox.”

For what seemed like an eternity, Colly watched from the porch as Russ shone a white beam of light around the van’s interior. Finally, he backed out of the door, something long and thin dangling from his fist. He carried it to the base of the porch and threw it on the ground.

“Don’t worry, it’s dead.”

Colly swallowed with effort. At Russ’s feet lay a six-foot rattlesnake, its black eyes dull and staring. The diamond patterns on its back were nearly obscured by congealed blood, though Colly saw no visible wounds.

“How’d you kill it?”

“It was dead already. Tucked up inside a cloth pouch the same color as the van ceiling, and rigged to fall when you put on the seatbelt. Fuse for the dome light’s been pulled, too. That’s why no one saw it.” Russ rubbed his forehead, leaving a red smear above his eyebrow.

Colly felt light-headed. She steadied herself against the porch rail. “But—where’s the blood coming from?”

“Belly’s slit open. See?” Russ rolled the snake with his boot. “There’s gore all over the van—spilled out when it fell. The thing’s been dead a few hours, at least.”

“Who would do that?” Brenda edged closer. She had one arm protectively around Satchel’s shoulders, and Minnie was clinging to her skirt.

“That’scool.” Logan started towards the porch, but his mother grabbed his t-shirt and jerked him back like a puppy on a leash.

“It is not cool—don’t say that.”

Russ looked at Brenda. “Were the doors locked?”

“No. Why would they be?”

Just then, Iris emerged from the house carrying a metal box with a red cross on the lid. “I couldn’t find it at first,” she said, then spotted the snake. “Was someone bitten? Are the children all right?”

Russ held up his hand. “No one’s hurt, Momma. Stay there.”

Heedless, Iris descended the steps. “Was that in the yard? Did you kill it, Russ?” She stooped to peer more closely. “Is that acigarettein its mouth?”

Russ stared blankly at his mother, then pointed the flashlight at the snake’s head. Even from her vantage point several feet away, Colly could see the tip of a small, white object protruding from between the jaws. Russ knelt and reached for the snake, but Colly stopped him.

“Got any gloves?”

“There are some in here.” Iris handed Russ the first-aid kit.

Once gloved, he levered open the snake’s mouth and pulled out the white object.

It was a rolled scrap of paper.

With a glance at Colly, he dropped the snake and unrolled the paper on his knee. He stared in disgust.

“What is it?” Colly, Brenda, and Iris asked simultaneously.

---