Chapter 11

     “Well, this is a problem” murmured Pastor Basil.
    “Poor stage presence, sloppy acting, and just not at all what we’re looking for!” declared Mrs. Snapper “next!”
      “Now wait a minute,” I was not about to let the poor python be dismissed without adding my input as co-assistant-director. “It’s not like we have anything else that could play the donkey.  The other animals are too small.”
     “Good point,” Mrs. Snapper conceded, “but baby Jesus will be born and old enough to vote by the time that snake gets Mary to Bethlehem.”  
      The grizzled quilting lieutenant did have a point.  We had spent a good ten minutes staring at the python as it lay unmoving in front of the altar.
       “Oh for crying out loud” grumbled Mr. Skink, marching up to the altar.  “Sybil is not going to move unless she has the right motivation.”  With that he reached into his pocket and pulled out a very plump and very alarmed mouse.
          “No!” I yelled.  
          “Oh calm down, she doesn’t get fed until after 6 o’clock, this is just a bribe.” Mr. Skink waved the mouse back and forth and immediately the python perked up and slithered across the floor at a brisk pace.
         “Better” Mrs. Snapper stood up, her hands steepled in front of her.  “Can you do that during the actual performance?”
      “Can’t see why not” shrugged Mr. Skink, sitting back down with Sybil curled around his feet, and the temporarily spared mouse back in his pocket.    
           “But nothing about this snake says ‘donkey’” Mrs. Snapper began to pace in front of the altar.  “How will the congregation know what it is?”  
           “A tail?” I suggested. 
          “No, she already has a tail, too much of a tail, that’s the problem” Mrs. Snapper muttered, almost to herself.
         “Sybil is pretty much all tail” agreed Pastor Basil.  “What about getting one of the quilters to crochet her some ears?”
           “You wanna put ears on Sybil?” Mr. Skink stood up again.
           “Just for the performance, and, maybe a saddle of some sort-”
       “No saddle!” Mr. Skink made as if to march over to Pastor Basil, but instead found his feet tangled up in Sybil’s coils and nearly fell over.  He settled for swaying back and forth, his eye patch flapping against his cheek.  “She’s a snake, not a pony, I won’t hear of it.”
“Just ears then” Pastor Basil smiled brightly, “Mrs. Snapper, I’ll leave it to you set up a fitting with your fellow quilters.  Now, who is next?”
To Be Continued   
 
1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
 
Pastor Basil, Mrs. Snapper, and even the narrator only see part of who Sybil the python is and what she has to offer.  They don’t even know her name until Mr. Skink introduces her.  How does Mr. Skink’s knowing of Sybil the Python change the way the others see her? Who in your life knows you and helps others to see your full worth?

A reading of Chapter 11 by Amelia Corbett