Chapter 2

            Now, I know what you’re thinking.  How could a town as relentlessly boring as Belliacre have a reptile house?  Reptile houses are full of interesting animals, fascinating trivia, and trendy gift shops.  The thing is, our reptile house is just a private home with, well, reptiles, and a couple spiders thrown in for variety.   
            My parents say that Mr. Samuel Skink showed up when we were still small in a rusty green pickup truck pulling a trailer just teeming with snakes, lizards, and even a couple tarantulas hanging out the windows.  He parked that trailer on the edge of town and he and all the snakes, lizards, spiders, and God knows what else, have been there ever since.   
            Mr. Skink keeps himself to himself most of the time.  Sometimes we’ll see him at the grocery store, talking to an orange and black tarantula perched on his shoulder, or riding his bicycle through town with a great big python draped around his neck.  He rarely smiles or says much of anything that isn’t directed to a snake or spider.
Then there’s the eye patch.  Nothing wrong with an eye patch, except Mr. Skink can’t seem to decide which eye it belongs on.  Some days it will be covering the left, other days the right.  My brother had the idea that the thing was magic, which is why he came up with the dare to steal it.
To Be Continued
 
Matthew 25:40
 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
 
Jesus places himself among “the least of these.”  He builds community with outsiders: women and men with bad reputations, people pushed to the side because of illness, as well as beggars and foreigners.  What would Jesus have to say and do with someone like Samuel Skink?  What about the narrator?   

A video recording of chapter 2 by Amelia Corbett