Son of the Preacher Man

Chapter One Early Cain had come back from Vietnam in 1974, when he was twenty years old, with a fairly serious wound that got him discharged from the army. He didn’t talk about it much, but it had led him into being a police officer and then the chief of Police for about eight years before his PTSD and the loss of two of his men, murders that would remain unsolved for reasons only Early knew, had driven him over the edge and into the church. He had become a leader in a matter of months with a following that grew alarmingly fast given the dangerous message he preached. Early preached fundamentalist ideas that were outdated but somehow persisted in Appalachia and the south. Women, he believed, were only here to serve their husbands and that was all. They had no rights as far as he was concerned, and neither did children. His message of discipline and loving correction were all just prettier words for domestic violence. His wife of sixteen years, Anne, refused to see herself as a victim. She had silently borne the abuse for years, hiding her bruises carefully. Her sister, Pearl, knew about it. She had taken her to the hospital twice. Once just before Early went to Vietnam, when he had beaten the hell out of her for what he perceived was cheating. In reality she had only been conversing with a male friend. But she had her own secrets. They married within days of him returning home. Early had known when he married her that she was pregnant, and there was a good chance that their oldest son had been fathered by his brother, Jesse, while he was away. Neither of the girls were Early's biologically. Kristin had been conceived by Anne from an affair that Early still was not aware of. She had believed Earlywas having an affair with his secretary, which he had, so she sought revenge with one of his biker friends. Amy was the daughter of Early's former secretary, Amy and Kristin had the same father. The youngest was Bryan, now only two years old. He wasn't Early's or Anne's. Yet another carefully concealed skeleton in the closet of Pastor Cain. Kristin had given birth to Bryan at thirteen in a hospital a state away. Only Anne, Kristin, and Amy knew who Bryan's father was. * It was Sunday morning in North Carolina, and the sun that should have been pouring through the trees on the small country church was dimmed to a dim silvery light by the low hanging, milky clouds and fog that rose from the creek in back of the church, it was as if the two combined to create a thick cloak that obscured everything from view. Bret and Amy stood watching the cars make their way in, emerging from the thick murk as if from one of the horror movies they watched with their cousins because they weren't allowed to watch them at home. Most popular media wasn't allowed in their home, Early believed it brought in evil ideas and spirits. Early's brother, Jesse, was by all accounts a Christian man. He freely admitted he had his faults, though. He didn't force his four boys to attend church if they didn't want to, with the exception of Austin, who was only three. He and his wife Pearl attended Early's church to support his dream of being a preacher, though they took issue with some of his message. Bret and Amy's attendance at church was non negotiable if they wanted to keep what little freedom they had. But like everything else, Kristin seemed to do as she pleased, and she hasn't shown up yet. Early had, at one time, been hard on her as he had been the other two but since Bryan was born, he had started treating her almost as if she were grown. It sent her mental state, which had always been shaky, into a tailspin; the effects of which were becoming more obvious by the day. The reality of what she'd done and living with the constant reminder was driving her into madness. The air was so sticky that Early opened the big front doors to let in some fresh air as people stood around the parking lot talking, despite the rumbling thunder in the distance that was accompanied by dim flashes of lightning. The congregation was an odd mix of bikers in their finest leathers, farmers in their cleanest overalls with starched button down shirts, stereotypical southern church ladies in their best dresses, and a few people in slacks and polos, or suits. In any other setting, it would be hard to imagine these people would ever associate with one another. Bret and his sister, Amy, took their usual seats along the wall where the older people and other kids sat to avoid being caught up in the chaos that was the congregation when Early really got them going. From here, Bret could see the wooden box that was perched on a long folding table beside the podium. Already he could hear the rustling inside. The snakes were growing restless. Despite the laws against it, Early's was a snake handling church. The snakes were primarily copperheads and western diamondbacks found in wood piles, under sheds, and in brush around North Carolina and Virginia. The congregation didn't know, or at least pretended to not know, the snakes were de-fanged. Meaning they were harmless. They frequently bit the people handling them, and when no one died, it seemed to strengthen the belief that the church was anointed and sent the congregation into a frenzy each time the snakes were lobbed into the seats. Moments before Early opened his bible to start, Kristin joined them. She already looked bored as she took her seat beside Amy. Bret glanced at his sister, his eyebrow going up a little. Just behind her left ear was a decent sized hickey. "Nice," Bret scoffed. "Where did you get that?" Kristin arranged her auburn hair to cover the hickey and smirked at her older brother. "Jealous?" He rolled his eyes but didn't look her way. Sometimes he wondered if she was trying to make him jealous. "Not one bit. I ain't gotta get marked up to prove I got laid." Amy snickered in between them. She'd seen the hickey when Kristin had slipped into the house through their bedroom window a few hours ago. Kristin ignored Amy, turning her glare towards her brother. "Whatever, Mister Perfect. High talk for someone who ain't getting any." Knowing she hated his girlfriend, Bret turned to meet her glassy eyes. "Oh honey, I get plenty. Nidi gives me all I can handle." Before she could answer, people filed into the church and began to take their seats. Early took his place at the homemade podium and opened the large leather bound bible. Bret glanced to his right, where there was another long folding table covered in a cheap, plastic, red checkered tablecloth from the local dollar store. At this table was seated Anne, the choir leader, and young boy who passed out water, papers, or snacks. Anne gave him a big smile of encouragement that seemed to spur him on. The sermon itself started as normally, Early read through scriptures he had marked and the notes he'd made about them. The initial sermon was about brother's turning on each other, but it switched gears abruptly to Early screaming about whores and adulterers so loudly that the rafters rang with his voice. Bret had almost dozed off, but the reverberation of his father's voice startled him awake with a jolt of fear. People in the main seats started to jump to their feet and holler back, holding their hands up as if to catch the words behind hurled at them. The energy sent Early into a frenzy, he was practically foaming at the corners of his mouth. He whipped off his coat and the it on the floor beside him. Wiping sweat from his brow with a bandana, Early took a drink from a red solo cup under his podium. Bret and Amy knew it wasn't water, it was pure homemade moonshine- the other family secret and probably the worst kept. "Whew, brothers and sisters! I feel a good preaching coming on today! The spirit is moving in me right now!" Bret and his sister's stood up, out of habit, they knew it was expected. But they never fully caught on to the fervor that swept the room. "It's our job!" Early roared, holding the podium so right his knuckles were white. "It is our job to protect our wives, daughters, sister's, and kids. We have to protect them from outside influences. The devil's influence is everywhere. It's in music, books, movies, the news even! Listen to what teachers are teaching your kids in the classroom. The schools that our tax dollars pay for are teaching your kids how to have s*x and get rid of babies! The problem is we have started further and further from God. The kiss and women are running these houses. That is not what God intended. Men, I urge you to take back control of your home in any way possible! They're out the music, the games, the books, the movies that the devil has planted in your homes." There was more but it was little more than unintelligible yelling from Early that was met with more unintelligible yelling from his audience. He tore off his tie and threw it on top of his jacket. The congregation threw off their coats, sweaters, and hats to wave around over their heads. As his sermon reached new heights, Anne and the others moved away from the table, narrowly missing being hit by a flying water bottle. As Early yelled out some scriptures that Bret and Amy couldn't understand. Without warning he turned and kicked the table away. "Brother Jimmy!" Someone yelled across the church."The spirit is moving among us this morning." "Something is moving in here," Bret whispered to Amy. "But it ain't God." She stifled a giggle, but when she glanced up at him, he could see the mirth in her eyes. Her lips tightened into a pucker to stop the laughter. She nodded in agreement but quickly turned to pretend to read the Bible in her hands. Her father scared her when he was this loud so she couldn't focus on anything in the book; she focused, instead, on tuning him out and sinking into her imaginary world. "It's time!" Early ranted, his voice starting to sound rough from the screaming. Sweat slipped down his face and dropped onto his light blue button down shirt, he slowly pulled off his belt and folded it. "It's time to beat the devil out of your home, the church, your family! It's the only hope we have! We have to fight him the way he fights us!" The kids in the church scooted closer to one another, eyes wide in fear as the preacher made his way around the church, slamming the belt down on the podium, chairs, pews, and all inanimate objects in his path as if he'd become possessed. His voice raised above the sound of the whacks and people stomping and making strange yodeling sounds that they called 'tongues'. "Just like my daddy did me and his daddy before him did to my uncle's, we have to stop being weak! Stop cowing down to this new age society! Beat the devil out of your home!" The kids looked around fearfully at their parents as they praised and agreed. Bret wondered how many of them lived like they did, in fear of setting off their parents for fear of being beaten. How many of them were left to deal with all manner of issues on their own because their parents believed that God would fix everything or it would make them look bad in the church if their child had some kind of issue. He noticed that some of the women cringed as well, and weren't praising asking with their husbands. It was obvious they were also abused, trapped, and afraid. How his father could not see it, was beyond him. The raging continued in spite of the discomfort of others. Finally, soaked in sweat and panting as if he'd just run several miles, Earlypaused and took a drink from the red solo cup under the podium. His face twitched slightly from the alcohol's burn, no one in their right mind would ever believe it was water. Earlystopped, placing his hand on the box next to him, where the snakes waited. "Who all is ready to treat their faith?" Early spoke quieter now, his eyes searching the room. "Do you believe it?" There was a loud round of cheers as the conGregation agreed with him, growing excited at what was to come. Bret looked around the room with a sigh, there was no one standing between him and the door. Beside him, Amy shifted uncomfortably. She was scared of the snakes, de-fanged or not. Scared to the point of nightmares sometimes. When Earlyreached for the lid of the box, Bret grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go outside." She looked up at him with wide green eyes. "Dad will have a fit if we walk out, Bret. We'll get in trouble." "I'll take the heat," Bret whispered. He gave her a soft smile. Sometimes he got between his father and sisters and Shannon when things got heated, he'd taken more than a few beatings because of it. "Come on. He might not even notice." It was true that they had done it before, and gotten away with it. She followed him down the aisle and quickly out the back door. The fog had lifted around the church but the clouds persisted and thunder rumbled in the distance. Bret dropped the tailgate on Early's truck and used it for a bench. "I hate those f*****g snakes." He chuckled at Amy. "I know you do." She nodded quickly, "Ever since Kristin put that one in my bed a while back." "She did what?" Bret's smile faded. "When?" "It was just a black snake." Amy swung her feet, watching her little brown flats with interest. "But I didn't know that. She said it was a rattlesnake. Daddy said I was only afraid of it cause I'm not filled with the spirit." "That's bull." Bret scoffed. "I don't know if I can stand living with him for two more years." "More like four for me," Amy glanced at the church door. Inside, people were screaming in prayer as the snakes were passed around. She went back to looking at her shoes, her reddish hair falling forward. "Hey, when Nidi and me move out," Bret stroked her hair back. "You and Shannon can come live with us." "Y'all getting married?" Amy looked up with wide eyes. "Not right off, but soon. We're going to get an apartment." He chuckled. "Mama ain't gonna like that. She don't like Nidi." Neither Earlyor Anne like Nidi. Her father was a retired Air Force captain, he was a couple decades older than her mom, white come back to America from Puerto Rico with him. Nidi was their only child and she was spoiled beyond belief. Bret had harbored a crush on her since they met in sixth grade, he'd asked her out the following year and they had become a couple, secretly at first. She didn't attend church, and she dressed exactly opposite of how Early allowed his girls to dress. Nowadays, Anne and Earlyknew but they imposed strict rules on them dating in hopes that Nidi would give up but it was the same as telling her she couldn't have something and that made her more determined to have it. "Sounds like they're getting riled up in there." Amy shook her head. Something seemed off about the noise though. It no longer sounded like praise and the usual gibberish. It sounded like panic. "You reckon one of the snakes got somebody?" Bret looked back over his shoulder at the closed door. The door swung open, Jesse was dragging a lifeless man by his arms. Early followed with his bible in hand and a hissing rattlesnake in the other. "He didn't believe! His faith was too weak to take up serpents!" Earlyyelled, flanked by other members as he followed Jesse, who was putting the man in his truck. Jesse closed the bank truck door on his old king cab and l looked back at Jimmy. "You threw a rattlesnake at someone with a heart condition. He didn't even know there was gonna be snakes. I'm taking him to the hospital." "I think you should let us lay hands on him!" Early shook his head, but Jesse ignored his brother as he left the parking lot of the church. Early stormed back inside, bringing the service to close. He didn't notice Amy and Bret had been outside the whole time. And he didn't speak for the entire ride home. His mind was a jumbled mess. If this man divulged why he'd had a heart attack, Earlywas in deep trouble. Snake handling in churches was forbidden in these parts. The wildlife agency would charge him for having wildlife without license, and there would be charges related to assault and endangerment as well. As soon as they arrived home, Bret took just enough time to change before he left. Amy did the same, and went across the black top road to visit her cousins, her decidedly rough and rowdy male cousins. Kristen decided it was time for a nap. "I don't understand how he got in here."! Earlystood looking out the window over the kitchen sink. He looked around when he heard the kids moving through the living room and scowled. "Y'all be back before six. You hear? We got evening service. Don't make me come looking." There was a muttered response as they went out. Early turned back to Anne. "Like I said, I don't know how he got in here." "Who?" Anne didn't look up from making her and Earlya sandwich. "Satan." Earlysaid matter of factly. "He's doing it again. He's trying to take my church from me, send us off the path. Don't you see? That guy was Satan, he was sent to the church to ruin me." She'd grown used to her husband ranting and raving about Satan and his plots to get him. "Maybe so. What are you going to do about it?" "Pray the cops don't come snooping around." Early finally sat down to eat. But he didn't taste the food.