The Playhouse

Anyone could tell exactly where I was. The choking cloud of dust rolled out of the open end of the lean-to beside my daddy's garage. He had given permission for me to use it for a play house and I'd been busy with it from right after breakfast, taking only enough time away from my labors to wipe off my face, wash my hands and wolf down my dinner. I drained the last drop of iced tea from the glass and headed back outside where I was busily deciding where all my furniture would be placed; the bed, here. I billowed out the large scrap of mill cloth from mother's rag bag, and placed it on the cement floor. The kitchen table - an up-ended rickety orange crate, over which I daintily spread a square of red printed gingham.
"Priscilla!"
I heard daddy's call from the back steps and I went flying!
"Get in the car, we're going for a ride."
I knew better than argue or ask any questions. Daddy was to be obeyed. The dark blue '34 Ford sped away from our Duke Power Company house toward town. We passed on without stopping; everything was closed. It was, after all, Sunday. Soon the pavement ended and I saw we were on a narrow, dusty road running straight through a South Georgia swamp.
With the speed my daddy drove, we soon came to a lone wooden house amidst ancient live oaks deeply strung with Spanish Moss. There were a few children playing hopscotch in the sandy yard, but I knew I'd not be allowed to play with them. Daddy parked at the far end of several other dark vehicles and we got out. I didn't see another grownup anywhere but I could hear singing and tambourines chinking as we mounted the creaking wooden steps.
With his hand on my shoulder, we stepped through the door into the front room of someone's house; into a room totally devoid of furniture except for several straight backed chairs aligned against the front wall. I was told to sit in the vacant one on this end.
I was seated next to a large lady with gray-streaked hair which was pulled back tightly into a knot at the back of her head. She nodded and smiled at me. I don't remember if I smiled back or not, but I saw sweat beaded in the fine hairs of her upper lip and was mesmerized by the jiggle of her double chin as she clapped her hands with the rhythm of the music.
Soon the music was over and a man in black pants and white shirt, holding the Holy Bible began to preach. He talked louder and faster as he paced back and forth at the other side of the room beneath a cardboard picture of Jesus thumb-tacked to the wall.
My daddy was among the dozen or so men and women who were standing along the two other walls. In the far corner from where I sat, there were two chicken-wire cages containing very large timber rattlers. Every time the preacher came near, they would coil and rattle.
Before I knew what happened, a lady opened on of the crates and brought out the longest, largest rattler I'd ever seen. It warpped itself in a writhing mass around her upheld arm. She swayed back and forth and then with eyes closed and head thrown back, she spoke in a high chattering voice. Others went forward and took out two more rattlers and began to pass them around to anyone who cared to reach out and take one.
I picked up my bare feet and clamped them on the rung when a rattler was dropped to the floor. It was quickly retrieved and the preacher swung the snake over his head and then piled it atop the Holy Bible.
After some time the shouting began to subside and the sweating preacher became more and more hoarse and finally called on his brother to close with prayer as the rattle snakes were returned to their cages.
Daddy motioned for me to come and I walked with him outside. Standing next to him as he handed the preacher a five dollar bill, I heard him say he never got a chance to put it in the coffee can inside. I saw the other children watching us and I was proud that Daddy could give that much money.
When we arrived home, I was anxious to return to work on my playhouse but mother made me take a bath and get dressed for bed while she fixed supper. After supper I was so disappointed to find she would not let me go back outside. I just wanted to check it one more time to make sure everything was as I had left it. But I had to pack my book satchel and lay out my clothes for school.
Later, in the dark, I fell asleep thinking of what I could find to use for a couple of chairs in my wonderful playhouse.